Rushes is not a novel of propaganda; if any political statement is to be derived from the novel, it would seem to be that the oppressive "straight" world is ultimately responsible for the grotesque and perverse behavior to which the alienated homosexual is driven. The novel has much wider social implications, however. Rushes presents not so much the homosexual world but a particular cult within it. When it is seen as a cult with all the dogmas and trappings of a religion, the world of Rushes becomes an expression of and a metaphor for what Christopher Lasch calls the "culture of narcissism." By means of biblical and liturgical epigraphs before each chapter, together with frequent use of Christian terminology and symbols within the novel, Rechy sets up an ironic contrast between the shared values of Christian community and the self-seeking pilgrimages of the characters presented. But the empty...