Luncheon at the Cafe Ridiculous

The trends and caprices of contemporary American culture are witnessed with lively sarcasm and wit in this collection of Kahn's columns from the San Francisco Chronicle . She skewers such current phenomena as nouvelle cuisine, unisex lavatories and electronic dating with incisive jollity. In a nostalgic section, ``The Family That Shabooms Together,'' she shares reflections on family life past and pres ent, and describes growing up in New York and Chicago when the fads of the time seemed less threatening. Few subjects escape the razor-edge scrutiny of this untiring chronicler of the American pop scene. Author tour. (Feb.)