SoMa

Scott, the pseudonym of a Bay Area journalist, has compiled a fun, frisky novel of shock horror from a grab bag of urban legends, but it's somewhat spoiled by Scott's spin on the material as a Graham Greene-esque spiritual journey. In San Francisco, realtors and developers call the bohemian district that lies South of Market Street ""SoMa,"" trusting that a trendy acronym will boost condo sales in a squalid neighborhood. Would be-writer Raphe survives the dot.com crash by manning a penis enlargement scam joint while testing the limits of his sexuality in the ""anything goes"" SoMa sex world. When a homeboy roue, Baptiste, shows interest, Raphe can't help but perk up and love him back, finally coming out in an explosive sex encounter. Simultaneously, Raphe pines for stylish, redheaded Julie, a successful web executive who persuades him to begin what turns out to be an addictive regime of high colonics. Will bisexuality suffice, or will Raphe's anomie seek bigger thrills? In separate subplots, a sadistic millionaire, Mark Hazodo, plays dangerous games with unprotected ""bareback"" sex, while two comic suburbanites, Lauren and Jessica, crash private sex clubs and erotic shows (like ""Bondage a Go Go"") in search of excitement. Raphe eventually novelizes his own hesitant journey from white bread to pansexual potlatch, and the top-level conceit is that the book one is reading is the book he'll be writing. Scott can turn an amusing phrase and has his ear to the underground of the sexual revolution, but his characters are thin as shadows and his story gets unbelievable very quickly.