USA, Los Angeles, ca 1965
En ung mand, Johnny Rio, kører rundt i Los Angeles området og bliver brugt og bruger selv en masse mænd seksuelt. Christopher Isherwood og Don Bachardy er forlæg for et par af personerne (og Don Bachardy syntes dårligt om det).

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Read this about 20 years ago. It seemed sad then. Reread parts of it recently because Christopher Isherwood and his lover appear under other names. Bachardy seems to think the portrayal was unflattering. The Isherwood character was a trifle pretentious--hardly surprising that a gay hustler from Texas turned author might find an English expatriate who was best friends with W H Auden a little pretentious. The book and the main character still seems sad.

In comparison to his first novel, Rechy got a lot better - in my humble opinion.
This book is tightly glued together through a sharply defined period of time in which the protagonist takes a trip to Los Angeles. Also a lot of recurring themes or 'rituals' - as the narrator states it somewhere - help to make it a much more complete work than his first novel.

Through the narrator we get insight in the protagonist, Johnny Rio, and even the major parts of his life led so far. He states Johnny to be a good-looking, but narcissistic person, who needs to be desired by others and never ever desires someone back.
Ultimately I felt pity for the protagonist, cause he suffers from his desire to be desired that much, that his self-esteem every now and then would crumble, if it wasn't for his strange 'reasons', which are sometimes merely weak excuses to do, what he does, and to justify what he does without admitting that he wants to do it. The narrator clearly comments on this, while Johnny puts his reasons together, he simply contradicts and is therefore somehow a symbol of truth for me throughout the novel. Personally I thought those comments that contradicted the protagonist quite charming.

The one negative aspect, the only annoying thing I could find, were introductions of descriptions of characters or scenes that contained the phrase 'like this:'. This invoked a feeling as if the author lacked the creativity to give a proper introduction to his descriptions. And he did this frequently. ( )