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From the author of the classic City of Night
comes a captivating, wickedly entertaining novel
in which an irrepressible young hero is set loose
in the religious-fundamentalist world of Texas,
the gambling palaces of Las Vegas, and the enticing
mythos of Los Angeles.
The
internationally renowned novelist recently described
by Gore Vidal as “one of the few original
writers of the last century” re-creates himself
yet again with a witty bildungsroman that pays homage
to the classic eighteenth-century picaresque. Loosely
inspired by Fielding’s Tom Jones, it sends
the charming, handsome Lyle Clemens on an adventure
from fundamentalist Texas to the contemporary wilderness
of Los Angeles.
Raised
in Texas, the son of a Miss America aspirant and
an unknown father, Lyle Clemens approaches adulthood
and notices that everyone wants him to be something
he’s not. His beautiful mother wants to make
him into the cowboy who abandoned her; a group of
avaricious fundamentalists plot to convert him into
“the Lord’s Cowboy”; and the lovely
Maria wants him to fulfill her varying fantasies
of “true love.” When Lyle leaves home
to make his own destiny, he encounters a gallery
of charlatans and wistful souls, quirky gamblers,
dreamy showgirls, wily pornographers, and fake magicians;
and is seduced into an aging starlet’s mad
comeback scheme during a rambunctious Academy Awards
ceremony. Through it all, Lyle becomes himself.
The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens is a hilarious,
bittersweet, and wise book that establishes once
again John Rechy’s great storytelling gifts.
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