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| One
of the few major American writers whose
life is almost as interesting, and meaningful,
as his work."
— Michael Cunningham
One
of the few original American writers of
the last century.
—
Gore Vidal
"John
Rechy doesn't fit into categories. He transcends
them. His individual vision is unique, perfect,
loving, and strong."
—
Carolyn See
"One
of the most heroic figures of contemporary
American life...a touchstone of moral integrity
and artistic innovation."
—Edmund
White |
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| John
Rechy's Memoir |
| John Rechy's Intensified Reality. A feature article on John Rechy and his new book, About My Life and the Kept Woman appears in the Los Angeles Times. Click here to read the article. |
| The Power of Desire. Read the Los Angeles Times review of About My Life and the Kept Woman. Click here. |
| "...color, energy, humor and teeming characters of a Dickens novel..." is how The Dallas Morning News describes John rechy's memoir. Click here. |
| Publishers Weekly calls About My Life and the Kept Woman "...a marvelous autobiography by a writer whose life is as interesting as his fiction." Click here. |
About
My Life and the Kept Woman
John
Rechy has always been a path breaker. His
first novel, City of Night, is a modern
classic and his subsequent body of work has kept
him among America’s most important writers.
Now, for the first time, he writes openly about
his life, in a volume that is a testament to the
power of pride and self-acceptance.
Rechy
was raised Mexican-American in El Paso, Texas,
at a time when Latino children were routinely
segregated and discriminated against. Because
of his light skin, he was often assumed to be
Anglo and had his name “changed” for
him by a teacher, from Juan to John. As he grew
older—and as his fascination with the memory
of a notorious kept woman in his childhood deepened—Rechy
became aware that his differences lay not just
in his heritage but in his sexuality. While he
performed the roles others wanted for him, he
never allowed them to define him—whether
it was the authoritarians in the U.S. Army during
the Korean War, the bigoted relatives of his Anglo
college classmates, or the men and women who wanted
him to be something he was not.
About
My Life and the Kept Woman is a moving, powerful
story of a life that bears witness to some of
the most riotous changes of the past century.
Resonating with fierce individualism and utter
candor, it is as much a portrait of intolerance
as of an individual who defied it to forge his
own path.
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