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Rent Boy
A noir tour-de-force set in the world of hustlers from "one of America's darkest and funniest chroniclers." (The Guardian)
It's New York City, 1981, and everyone wants to be at the Emerson Club, from Cindy Crawford to Cindy Adams; from Famous Roger, one-time lion of the talk shows, to Sandy Miller, the “downtown” writer with the tattoos and the leather; from Lauren Hutton to the art star who does the thing with the poken plates. Everyone, that is, except Danny. Danny just works there, waiting tables to put himself through architecture school, turning tricks on the side. And when he’s not on the clock, he’s recording the sexual, aesthetic, and financial transactions that make up his life, in gruesome detail. But even a clever boy like Danny can wind up on the menu. Blinded by love for his fellow rent boy, Chip—as gorgeous as he is reckless—Danny is about to learn that there’s more than one way to turn your body into cash, and that cynicism is no defense when the real scalpels come out. A gimlet-eyed crime novel with an inventively filthy mind, Rent Boy is Gary Indiana at his most outrageous—and his best.
It's New York City, 1981, and everyone wants to be at the Emerson Club, from Cindy Crawford to Cindy Adams; from Famous Roger, one-time lion of the talk shows, to Sandy Miller, the “downtown” writer with the tattoos and the leather; from Lauren Hutton to the art star who does the thing with the poken plates. Everyone, that is, except Danny. Danny just works there, waiting tables to put himself through architecture school, turning tricks on the side. And when he’s not on the clock, he’s recording the sexual, aesthetic, and financial transactions that make up his life, in gruesome detail. But even a clever boy like Danny can wind up on the menu. Blinded by love for his fellow rent boy, Chip—as gorgeous as he is reckless—Danny is about to learn that there’s more than one way to turn your body into cash, and that cynicism is no defense when the real scalpels come out. A gimlet-eyed crime novel with an inventively filthy mind, Rent Boy is Gary Indiana at his most outrageous—and his best.
127 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1993
134 people are currently reading
6147 people want to read
About the author
Gary Indiana
73 books186 followersGary Hoisington, known as Gary Indiana, was an American writer, actor, artist, and cultural critic. He served as the art critic for the Village Voice weekly newspaper from 1985 to 1988. Indiana is best known for his classic American true-crime trilogy, Resentment, Three Month Fever: The Andrew Cunanan Story, and Depraved Indifference, chronicling the less permanent state of "depraved indifference" that characterized American life at the millennium's end. In the introduction to the recently re-published edition of Three Month Fever, critic Christopher Glazek has coined the phrase 'deflationary realism' to describe Indiana's writing, in contrast to the magical realism or hysterical realism of other contemporary writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 401 reviews
April 30, 2025
The first part of this underground classic is just amazing: Danny, the title-giving rent boy, studies architecture at Rutgers, earns his money as a waiter at a celebrity hot spot called "Emerson Club"and, sure, as a sex worker. Indiana does an amazing job evoking 1980's New York, and Danny's voice is so smart and fresh that it's just a joy to read his thoughts, which are presented in an epistolary style, hence as letters to a former client... lover? .... friend? There is a confessional feel to it, and the intimacy between the two correspondents effectively leads to ellipses for the reader, for instance regarding Danny's family background, which is only hinted at. And sure, we never read the responses he receives.
Danny is highly perceptive and matter-of-fact about his job as a sex worker, relating again and again to his fears around AIDS and the economic forces that rule the field. But then, for some reason, Indiana seems to lose faith in the fact that the usual daily routines of Danny can carry the text - and they absolutely could have, because they are so well-rendered. Instead, he suddenly brings in an organ theft plot around a client of a colleague who is a shady, elderly doctor. I was pondering whether there is a supposed to be some connection between renting out your body and selling organs, or whether this is a statement about capitalism, or AIDS and bodily disintegration, etc. - but the whole thing just does not work out, it feels like an author adding a criminal story line as an afterthought. I didn't care about this at all, I wanted to hear more about Danny and his triple life as a student, bartender and sex worker, and what he learnt about people on the way.
How unfortunate, this could easily have been a 5-star-read!
Danny is highly perceptive and matter-of-fact about his job as a sex worker, relating again and again to his fears around AIDS and the economic forces that rule the field. But then, for some reason, Indiana seems to lose faith in the fact that the usual daily routines of Danny can carry the text - and they absolutely could have, because they are so well-rendered. Instead, he suddenly brings in an organ theft plot around a client of a colleague who is a shady, elderly doctor. I was pondering whether there is a supposed to be some connection between renting out your body and selling organs, or whether this is a statement about capitalism, or AIDS and bodily disintegration, etc. - but the whole thing just does not work out, it feels like an author adding a criminal story line as an afterthought. I didn't care about this at all, I wanted to hear more about Danny and his triple life as a student, bartender and sex worker, and what he learnt about people on the way.
How unfortunate, this could easily have been a 5-star-read!
May 6, 2025
Fantastic voice in this one. There’s something deeply satisfying about how fast and loose it plays with genre – the first chunk feels like sleazy autofiction, all gritty vignettes and disconnected hook-ups narrated in a deadpan tone, and then suddenly we’re in full-blown noir-thriller mode. I liked this genre switch, which only serves to emphasise the book’s ‘Less Than Zero by way of David Cronenberg’ thing. Despite all that it’s not overly stylised but rather very lived-in: believably disaffected, full of offhand confidence, with the occasional weird little aesthetic tic to remind you this is the 80s. Cruel and horny and unwell. A great short book for hot days when everything has an unreal sheen.
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September 19, 2023sliding from social realism to horror over the course of 128pp w/ no clear transition point between the two is the literary equiv of going over niagara falls in a barrel. respect
June 27, 2024
Much like the male prostitutes who populate this novel, I was quickly in and out of this in one night.
And it's a good thing too, because I would not have wanted to spend a single second longer in this bleak and grimy world of New York City's seedy gay nightclubs, soulless male hustlers (aka "rent boys"), lonely johns, and desperate junkies in the early 1990's. Let's just say this turned out to be a "Happy Pride Month" selection only in the most grimly ironic sense.
Those who've been following me for a while know I'm far from a pearl-clutching prude. But I found this to be FILTHY in every sense of the word. If this were a movie, the ushers would have been handing out barf bags at the front door.
There are some "trashy" reads that are deliciously raunchy and pulpy and fun, even titillating at times. And then there are those "trashy" reads that are just vile and gross, reveling in their nihilism and ability to shock and disgust. This book was very much an example of the latter.
It's too bad, too, because author Gary Indiana (not his birth name - ha!) definitely knows his way around a sentence. There is some blistering satire and pithy writing scattered throughout, and I can appreciate his ambitious attempt to examine the lives of male sex workers with a candid and empathetic eye, while also questioning and condemning a capitalistic society in which everything and everyone becomes a crude commodity to be bought and sold.
Indiana displays an acerbic wit that probably made/makes him a provocative and engaging essayist. But as a novel, this is a meandering mess, dragged down by weak character development and poor pacing. We don't even get a hint of a plot until well past the halfway point, and even then it's pretty far-fetched and absurd. NOT RECOMMENDED.
I think I've overheard a million john life stories and another million whore life stories and once you plow off the bullshit the john's story's always "I'm lonely" and the whore's story's always "I came from a dysfunctional family."
And it's a good thing too, because I would not have wanted to spend a single second longer in this bleak and grimy world of New York City's seedy gay nightclubs, soulless male hustlers (aka "rent boys"), lonely johns, and desperate junkies in the early 1990's. Let's just say this turned out to be a "Happy Pride Month" selection only in the most grimly ironic sense.
Those who've been following me for a while know I'm far from a pearl-clutching prude. But I found this to be FILTHY in every sense of the word. If this were a movie, the ushers would have been handing out barf bags at the front door.
There are some "trashy" reads that are deliciously raunchy and pulpy and fun, even titillating at times. And then there are those "trashy" reads that are just vile and gross, reveling in their nihilism and ability to shock and disgust. This book was very much an example of the latter.
It's too bad, too, because author Gary Indiana (not his birth name - ha!) definitely knows his way around a sentence. There is some blistering satire and pithy writing scattered throughout, and I can appreciate his ambitious attempt to examine the lives of male sex workers with a candid and empathetic eye, while also questioning and condemning a capitalistic society in which everything and everyone becomes a crude commodity to be bought and sold.
Indiana displays an acerbic wit that probably made/makes him a provocative and engaging essayist. But as a novel, this is a meandering mess, dragged down by weak character development and poor pacing. We don't even get a hint of a plot until well past the halfway point, and even then it's pretty far-fetched and absurd. NOT RECOMMENDED.
I think I've overheard a million john life stories and another million whore life stories and once you plow off the bullshit the john's story's always "I'm lonely" and the whore's story's always "I came from a dysfunctional family."
November 23, 2022
The titular rent boy is writing letters; the recipient is largely unknown. The voice here is brilliant, free flowing and smooth. The details from this young man’s life are salacious and quirky.
So far so good. Then the plot veers off into an organ donor crime drama. What? Is the organ donor motif a metaphor for a rent boy — where money forces people to part with precious aspects of themselves? Who knows. I was distracted looking for some relevance, and would much rather have learned more about Chip, and Danny.
Four stars for the voice.
So far so good. Then the plot veers off into an organ donor crime drama. What? Is the organ donor motif a metaphor for a rent boy — where money forces people to part with precious aspects of themselves? Who knows. I was distracted looking for some relevance, and would much rather have learned more about Chip, and Danny.
Four stars for the voice.
February 8, 2025
I DO NOT understand the conversation around this book. Almost every review i've read about Rent Boy in some way points back to how disgusting and vile this book is and/or how low brow it is. What was grotesque about this book? the descriptions of sex? Are the people reading it 13 years old? If anything it was an honest potrail of what rent boys likely had to go through. IF YOU DIDN'T WANT CRUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF SEX WHY TF DID YOU READ A BOOK CALLED RENTBOY?? And to call it lowbrow is for some reason giving homophobic. Was it 'lowbrow and nasty' because of the content, or because it was about queer people. GAG IT.
Anyways, I thought the writing was just so unique and was full of character. I laughed often and truly enjoyed the experience of reading it because I had no idea what would happen next. I think it might be my top read so far this year :)
Anyways, I thought the writing was just so unique and was full of character. I laughed often and truly enjoyed the experience of reading it because I had no idea what would happen next. I think it might be my top read so far this year :)
July 11, 2023
This was an intense novella. Told in first person in a letter to a former lover, Danny/Mark/Billy depending on who he was with, chronicles his life as a waiter at the nightclub for the rich and famous where drugs and sex were plentiful, and as male prostitute, or rent boy, in 1981 in NYC. Danny shares the sometimes repulsive details of his trick’s fetishes and desires, and the addictions and excesses of patrons and friends without judgement, aware always of the emptiness and meaninglessness of their lives.
This is a raw book and about halfway through I almost put it down, but it was about halfway through that the story took a shocking, dark turn and I’m glad I kept with it.
This is not a book for everyone, sensitive readers might not like it, but Danny is a voice that will stay with me.
This is a raw book and about halfway through I almost put it down, but it was about halfway through that the story took a shocking, dark turn and I’m glad I kept with it.
This is not a book for everyone, sensitive readers might not like it, but Danny is a voice that will stay with me.
February 13, 2024
"saltburn was fucking CRAZY" what is fucking CRAZY is that you clearly have never picked up a gary indiana book ?????? SO shallow and SO fucking pointless and just SO fucking weird and i LOVED every second of it. seriously the most disgusting shit that i have ever read and yet i reread it at least once a month gary indiana you have radicalised me . Beautiful. genuinely PERFECT. if i could direct any film adaptation of a book i would fuck Rent Boy UP !!!!!!!!! Quentin tarantino would have absolutely NAILED a rent boy film though jesus christ. so what is my takeaway from this book??? Nothing!!! Is there any meaning?? Nope!!!! Was it sick??? EXTREMELY!!!! Such a disturbingly beautiful book. my inspo genuinely gary you are a GENIUS except when i think abiut it youre just fucking troubled. will write a readable review that isnt just me vomiting words out when i am up because this changed my life. for the better????? No!!! It has made me worse!!! i still love it though. this is such a word barf but theres no other way to capture this fucking book. do i recommend it ???? Not proudly!!!!! said with Love
July 14, 2024
— "I can tell you what the cocktail lounge at the Ramada's like, think of dark Formica and grainy indirect lighting and emotions collecting in front of you in the little puddles formed by your cocktail glass, islands and continents of feelings you don't know how to place any more, and voices, the so-called human element, that remind you you're chained to the earth by a million little details: the world has fancy intellectual names for all these manacles and torture devices holding you down, but they might as well be called Mavis and Stanley and Chip, or the boy who ran away from home to learn fear, or the boy you love beyond anything who brings you a souvenir from his trip to Easter Island with the one he wants to fuck instead of you, or just a client whose loneliness and despair jut out on his face in the seconds before he comes: to me they were faces scribbled in watercolor drooling down the window, drizzling into Eighth Avenue and puddling up with all the human wreckage stashed in waterlogged corners of construction scaffolds."
June 27, 2023
One of the most disturbing things I’ve ever read??? I could not, in good conscience, recommend this to anyone without having like a very long conversation beforehand. Maybe when I gather my thoughts I’ll write an actual review, but I’ll leave this for now.
December 15, 2023
the cover is the best part of it
July 12, 2012
While in San Francisco last week on a search for collectible gay fiction I found this at Bolerium Books, the world's largest inventory of used gay books for sale. It looked like a quick read covering the male hustler scene in contemporary (1990s) New York. The first half of the book is exactly that, and it was so funny and bitchy and real and deeply-felt that I was actually laughing out loud. The rent boy Danny (or Mike, or Billy, or whatever) drifts through his self-realized meaningless life, offering hilarious observations about his tricks, the bar scene, NY living, and sex. The graphic passages on sex are some of the best I've read anywhere not because of their explicit eroticism---nicely done thank you very much---but in the way the author non-judgmentally presents sex as a healthy normal activity, in all its kinky forms. This is fresh, not often seen in serious gay literature, in contrast to pornography let's say.
Then at halfway through the book Danny hooks up with another hustler and is drawn into a criminal situation involving organ theft. This is quite an unexpected and unforeshadowed shift in direction. Unfortunately it doesn't really work re: plot development, but it does effectively provide an opportunity for Danny to change his life---if he wants to. I won't spoil the plot with further details. For a few pages (this is a short book after all) there is true suspense.
In the second half you will also find plenty of social and political commentary which, if you are a liberal anti-Republican, like me, will warm your heart. A shadowy former trick of Danny's also partially emerges as a recipient of his letters of which the book itself appears to be a compilation made sometime after...well, no plot spoilers here.
I look forward to reading two or three more of Gary Indiana's books; his style is a toned down Dennis Cooper and doesn't cause as much brain damage as Cooper does.
Then at halfway through the book Danny hooks up with another hustler and is drawn into a criminal situation involving organ theft. This is quite an unexpected and unforeshadowed shift in direction. Unfortunately it doesn't really work re: plot development, but it does effectively provide an opportunity for Danny to change his life---if he wants to. I won't spoil the plot with further details. For a few pages (this is a short book after all) there is true suspense.
In the second half you will also find plenty of social and political commentary which, if you are a liberal anti-Republican, like me, will warm your heart. A shadowy former trick of Danny's also partially emerges as a recipient of his letters of which the book itself appears to be a compilation made sometime after...well, no plot spoilers here.
I look forward to reading two or three more of Gary Indiana's books; his style is a toned down Dennis Cooper and doesn't cause as much brain damage as Cooper does.
May 20, 2023
Yea that’s perfection
November 18, 2025
Well, this took an unexpectedly nihilistic dark turn. And what a grotesque ending. A cynical readfrom start to finish.
“HA HA HA”
“HA HA HA”
August 7, 2025
Rereading this for my book club. Insanely amazing. Indiana really makes some greay observations about life and the state of society.
An exciting experience that I was very happy to have had. I was expecting the crazy, wild experiences of a Rent Boy which I got. It was really funny and over the top. But then about halfway through the novel takes a turn and becomes an insane crime novel. And it worked so well!! Highly recommend and look forward to reading more Gary Indiana.
An exciting experience that I was very happy to have had. I was expecting the crazy, wild experiences of a Rent Boy which I got. It was really funny and over the top. But then about halfway through the novel takes a turn and becomes an insane crime novel. And it worked so well!! Highly recommend and look forward to reading more Gary Indiana.
November 4, 2023
Completamente folle.
Noir a tinte omo ricchissimo di contenuto vietato ai minori e anche ai deboli di stomaco, sembra voler ricalcare Dennis Cooper (che pure nomina! Il protagonista dice di aver acquistato un suo libro) e finirò anche io per mettervi presto le mani sopra, mi sa. Spero. This is my cup of tea.
Noir a tinte omo ricchissimo di contenuto vietato ai minori e anche ai deboli di stomaco, sembra voler ricalcare Dennis Cooper (che pure nomina! Il protagonista dice di aver acquistato un suo libro) e finirò anche io per mettervi presto le mani sopra, mi sa. Spero. This is my cup of tea.
April 18, 2023
A fast-paced, fairly interesting look into a world filled with sex, violence and murder.
Unfortunately, despite the subject matter, a lot of this book felt fairly bland to me. Perhaps I'm just not easily shocked, but I felt a lot of the content was included just for the "shock factor" and the main character just didn't feel authentic to me.
What begins as a look at the queer scene of the city soon diverges into an unexpected organ heist plot, and while parts of this were more entertaining and I found the end very impactful, as a whole the novel just didn't really work for me.
Still, I'm glad I read it and I enjoyed the journey - I just wish I'd really loved it as I went in with high hopes.
Unfortunately, despite the subject matter, a lot of this book felt fairly bland to me. Perhaps I'm just not easily shocked, but I felt a lot of the content was included just for the "shock factor" and the main character just didn't feel authentic to me.
What begins as a look at the queer scene of the city soon diverges into an unexpected organ heist plot, and while parts of this were more entertaining and I found the end very impactful, as a whole the novel just didn't really work for me.
Still, I'm glad I read it and I enjoyed the journey - I just wish I'd really loved it as I went in with high hopes.
March 6, 2025
110 pages of bullshit
April 26, 2025
Explicit, entertaining, and (surprisingly) neo-noir. I need more Gary Indiana in my life.
September 26, 2025
The writing of the MC's voice wasn't nearly interesting enough for me to ignore the blatant transphobia. Boring and has been done a thousand times.
January 7, 2026
This is the first time in history anyone will have ever mentioned the Denzel Washington movie The Equalizer in conversation with a Gary Indiana novel, but this book kind of had the Equalizer effect on me, where I adore it when it's at its most mundane and shaggy then lose a little interest once it settles into its more conventional genre framework. But GOD do I love the gossip and the bitchiness and the shop talk about clients with outrageous fetishes. I don't know what I expected from a Gary Indiana novel but I definitely did not expect to have this much fun with it. I reject the Kathy Acker slander-- I don't care if she was a poser or if she slept her way up the social ladder, her books are COOL and she is COOL-- but otherwise this is extremely and powerfully my kind of thing. I even warmed up to the thriller stuff once it reaches its nasty conclusion, which finally drove home the Dennis Cooper The Sluts vibes I'd been getting sporadically throughout the book. Shit rocks!!
December 14, 2025
SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP!!!! I have been craving a transgressive masterpiece like this for so long and Rent Boy delivers. I was captivated after a few pages and read it in one day. The ending will literally have you staring at the wall trying to process what just happened. If you are searching for a disturbing, fucked up book that still has a plot and a POINT, this is a perfect candidate.
Highly recommend for fans of Bret Easton Ellis or Dennis Cooper (latter he mentions in the book!)
Highly recommend for fans of Bret Easton Ellis or Dennis Cooper (latter he mentions in the book!)
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June 10, 2025wished that when they said 'eat shit' or 'shit-faced' it wasn't literal
June 13, 2025
loved this! sexy and freaky and hot
January 20, 2024
Likes it once the plot decided to make an appearance. 3.5.
February 5, 2024
Depraved <3
October 15, 2025
At first I was like this is soooo crass and there’s no plot and then at the half way mark I was like ok what the actual hell have I gotten myself into????
No one is talking about this? I’d like to compare this to the shards by Bret Easton Ellis if I may. Plz hit up my line to discuss that further.
Actually imagine my surprise after reading his memoir expecting something similar.
Me and all my girls hate Kathy ackers.
No one is talking about this? I’d like to compare this to the shards by Bret Easton Ellis if I may. Plz hit up my line to discuss that further.
Actually imagine my surprise after reading his memoir expecting something similar.
Me and all my girls hate Kathy ackers.
June 8, 2025
Riveting! Released in 1994, it’s a non-stop journey about a rent boy from NYC, his love for a fellow rent boy, and a high-stakes drug-fuelled mess they’ve gotten into
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September 9, 2025was intrigued but the blatant pointless transphobia in the very beginning kinda took me out of it at least for now
November 1, 2025
Eu estava esperando uma coisa diferente, não que o livro seja ruim, é até interessante.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 401 reviews