San Francisco Confidential: Tales of Scandal and Excess from the Town That's Seen Everything

Readers familiar with San Francisco will recognize the usual suspects and ""only in SF"" buzzwords in this work by Mungo (Palm Springs Babylon, St. Martin's, 1993): Mark Twain, Jack Kerouac, Jim Jones, Haight-Ashbury, AIDS, the Grateful Dead, to name a few. Other northern California locations are included if deemed saucy enough; there are chapters on Berkeley politics and Mayor Clint Eastwood of Carmel. No chapter is longer than three pages, and all are heavy on gossip and innuendo rather than fact, which contributes to the caricature of San Francisco as a naughty theme park rather than a real, living city. Readers of Herb Caen, longtime columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, can tell the difference between his graceful, affectionate satire and this heavyhanded catalog of eccentricity. Not recommended.--Mary Ann Parker, California Dept. of Water Resources Law Lib., Sacramento