The Sexual Outlaw: A Documentary: A Non-fiction Account, with Commentaries, of Three Days and Nights in the Sexual Underground

Summary: In this angry, eloquent outcry against the oppression of homosexuals, the author of the classic City of Night gives an explosive "non-fiction account, with commentaries, of three days and nights in the sexual underground" of Los Angeles in the 1970s--the "battlefield" of the sexual outlaw. Using the language and techniques of film, Rechy deftly intercuts the despairing, joyful, and defiant confessions of a male hustler with the "chorus" of his own subversive reflections on sexual identity and sexual politics, and with stark documentary reports of the violence in our society directs against homosexuals--"the only minority against whose existence there are laws

Like many of Rechy's books, THE SEXUAL OUTLAW is powerful, fascinating, and very depressing. The themes present in his novels are here in this non-fiction work - the power of physical beauty, narcissm, sex as liberation, unfulfilled desire, etc. Along with a narrative of one hustler's quest for validation through his sexual encounters, Rechy threads in a treatise on what it means to be homosexual in twentieth century America. Much of what he says is relevant to the twenty-first century as well, as the current battle over same-sex marriage attests.
Those looking for explicit sex will find it in abundance here. Rechy pulls no punches in his depiction of homoerotic love. Yet he is wise enough to see the sadness in the "sexhunt," and his show more "character" Jim, we know, will never find that elusive thing for which he searches, the combination of sexual gratification and personal intimacy. None of us will find it. We hate Jim for his narcissm and his superficiality but admire his rebel stance. He is a man-loving man not ashamed of the fact.

Rechy's accounts of police corruption concerning gay men and the hours spent nabbing "sexhunters" that could otherwise be spent apprehending murderers, rapists, and thieves are enough to make one's blood boil. And I love his comments on gay sensibility. But I find his whole stance on S&M somewhat puzzling and hypocritical. While no advocate of or participant in that particular sexual lifestyle, I fail to see the difference between the physical pain inflicted by "masters" upon "slaves" and the psychological pain engendered in the course of the sexhunt. Indeed it would seem the latter pain would be the more enduring and damaging.

This is an important book, more than twenty-five years old, but still relevant.

Reviewer: Randall Ivey "Randall" on Amazon.com show less

"A Non-Fiction Account, with Commentaries of Three Days and Nights In the Sexual Underground" from title page.