Meet John Rechy

I am most grateful to Octavio Roca for sharing a fascinating profile The LAnd magazine recently did of John Rechy, a gay writer I am chagrinned to admit I wasn't familiar with. (Back in 2016, Lee Levine nominated Rechy's 1994 novel, Numbers, for our reading list, but it didn't make the cut.) Nearly 91 years old and still going strong on the evidence of this interview, Rechy is a Mexican-American novelist, essayist, memoirist, dramatist and literary critic who is counted among the pioneers of modern LGBT literature. City of Night, his debut novel, was a best-seller when published in 1963, and is still in print, as are many of his 18 books. (The painter David Hockney credits City of Night for enticing him to move to Los Angeles.) Rechy definitely sounds like someone to keep in mind for our next reading list!

A redo for Redu?

Those of you fortunate enough to have spent time in Europe may have visited or at least heard of Redu, Belgium, which describes itself as a village du livre, a "book town." Beginning in the 1980s, the village of about 400 became home to more than two dozen bookstores--more shops than cows, its boosters liked to say--and thousands of tourists thronged its winsome streets each year. Sadly, as the Washington Post reports, more than half of Redu's bookstores have closed in recent years, and more are on the brink of bankruptcy.

Several local bookstores have found success by trying different strategies to cope with an aging clientele and competition from the internet. La Reduiste, for instance, hosts jazz nights and film screenings, in addition to selling books in multiple languages and serving espresso and Belgian beer. Books -- or, perhaps, just as important, the idea of books as symbols of comfort or quaint sophistication -- remain at the center of its business model, which can be replicated elsewhere, supporters say.

Anne Laffut, Redu's mayor, is optimistic. "The elders think the village is changing because there are fewer bookstores and it is a disappointment. But there is a new generation, which is very active in Redu. Many volunteers are teaming up with the same desire for the village to continue to endure."

What's in YOUR library?

As many of us are getting (and giving) books this holiday season, this New York Times article, "How Many Books Does It Take to Make a Place Feel Like Home?", seems quite timely. My answer to that query, by the way, is always "More!" 

Yet more LGBTQ poetry to know

Poem-a-Day seems to have taken a bit of a break from featuring LGBTQ poets and poetry since my last compilation here, back in October, but here are some more examples.  Enjoy! 

Inside Me, a Family by Ching-In Chen

Self-Compassion by James Crews

What Day by Paisley Rekdal

Vespers by Meg Day

The Midnight Cowboy rides again

Until I saw it on the Washington Post's "Best Nonfiction of 2021" list (see the item immediately below this one), I'd forgotten about Glenn Frankel's Shooting 'Midnight Cowboy': Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic, which came out back in April. I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never seen the 1969 Oscar-winning film, but the buzz about Frankel's tribute has definitely piqued my interest in the movie and the book.