After I have read those praising words on the back, I was high spirited when I started reading.
Though through out the novel Rechy depicted several characters pretty detailed - what I thought was a nice gesture - I felt somehow a indeterminable lack of depth.
Also I totally disagree with the statement 'Probably no first novel is so complete, so well held together, and so important as City of Night.'(The Houston Post). Though every chapter in its own right is good, its content is comprehensible and coherent in itself, most of the chapters were only loosely interconnected. Others where tightly knitted together - and this discrepancy really disturbed me while reading.

But it was - of course! - not bad at all. The insight this book offers of the homosexual scene at that time is very detailed. This as well as the personal view, thoughts and feelings of the first person narrator helps a lot to get an impression aloof from the usual prejudice concerning the life of people called 'homosexuals'.

This is a classic in gay literature. Rechy reveals a seemy underside of life in the 1960s among hustlers and drag queens. This tale is not for the faint of heart. Although a mirror of some aspects of gay life of its time, it seems a bit quaint and dated these days. ( )