What is it about?
In a review by Edmund White of the memoir About my Life and the Kept Woman, a Mexican-American named John Rechy struggles to fit in with society when he discovers once and for all that he is homosexual. The period of gay liberation would occur far after the author’s prime, that is the 1940s, and would suffer from the staunchest discrimination, especially from his macho Latino father.

How good is it?

The book did a good job of analyzing the detail and mentality of John Rechy in his review. An example would be how he questioned to what magnitude did the people in Rechy’s life act the way they were described to have acted. He noted how the author was narcissistic, and was proud of it through the analysis of quotes here and there in the book review. The review author also did well with familiarizing himself with Rechy’s books written previously, and compared them in quality and style as well in his review.

What context will help explain its place in the culture?

The context of the review was in America, during the mid 1900s. The Mexican-Americans were and still are a minority group, which in turn came with a whole band of prejudices. The reviewer mentions how for a prom date John Rechy (being an Anglo-looking Mexican) was able to capture the heart of a white girl, though without her knowing that he was Mexican. However, when he was brought to her house, the girl’s mother protested, “There is no way in hell will my daughter go out with a Mexican.” This helped paint the amount of racism that the book’s author had to live through. Also, the book reviewer mentioned the hardships of homosexuals during Rechy’s time, pre-homosexuality-liberation era.