Johnny Rio, un guapo narcisista pero que ya no es un niño bonito, viaja a Los Ángeles, el sitio de la conquista sexual pasada y el resplandor juvenil recordado, en un intento frenético de recrear su yo más joven. Johnny tiene diez días preciosos para dibujar los 'números', los hombres que confirmarán su atractivo, y con la atención hambrienta de un hombre en el tiempo prestado, acecha los balcones oscuros de los teatros que permanecen abiertos toda la noche, las arenas calientes de las playas alegres, y cañadas sombrías de los parques de la ciudad, tratando de atraer a los cazadores de sexo sombríos en una batalla obsesiva contra el final de su juventud.
When John Rechy's explosive first novel appeared in 1963, it marked a radical departure in fiction, and gave voice to a subculture that had never before been revealed with such acuity. It earned comparisons to Genet and Kerouac, even as Rechy was personally attacked by scandalized reviewers. Nevertheless, the book became an international bestseller, and fifty years later, it has become a classic. Bold and inventive in style, Rechy is unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling "youngman" and his search for self-knowledge within the neon-lit world of hustlers, drag queens, and the denizens of their world, as he moves from El Paso to Times Square, from Pershing Square to the French Quarter. Rechy's portrait of the edges of America has lost none of its power to move and exhilarate.
Fleeing a turbulent life in Los Angeles, John accepts an invitation to a private island from an admirer of his work. There, he joins Paul, his imposing host in his late thirties, his beautiful mistress, and his precocious teenage son. Browsing Paul's library and conversing together on the deck about literature and film during the spell of evening's "blue hour," John feels surcease, until, with unabashed candor, Paul shares intimate details of his life. Through cunning seductive charm, he married and divorced an ambassador's daughter and the heiress to a vast fortune. Avoiding identifying his son's mother, he reveals an affinity for erotic "dangerous games." With intimations of past decadence and menace, an abandoned island nearby arouses tense fascination over the group. As "games" veer toward violence, secrets surface in startling twists and turns. Explosive confrontation becomes inevitable.
