The first thing to grab your attention is the language; Mr. Morgan was a master lyricist. He manages to mix slang and more than a few 50-cents words into a smart, savvy book. Next, his take on SF's subculture of drugs and prostitution evoke a seemier side of the Bay Area's crown jewel, but a brilliant one, nonetheless. Finally, the plot conspires with the first two ingredients to make this book a MUST READ. I bought this book in hard cover when it was first published, and I've returned to it, periodically, ever since. It's simply one of the best books I have read.

If you don't mind spending a few heart-pounding hours stuck inside the filth and sewage of the lower end of Northern California's food chain, then you are sure to be rewarded when you read this unforgettable portrait of a cast of lowlifes. Consistently "used, and abused, served like hell," (Grandmaster Flash's words, not Seth Morgan's) the characters in this work, from a junkie strip club barker to a overpierced hooker, from the stereotypical cop with a mission to the snuff-film making drug-dealing fat man, bring to life a world most people (including me) never see. For all I know it doesn't even exist, but Seth Morgan makes it seem as if it does. Not only does the plot sizzle but Morgan's use of language adds something new to the literary world. Pick this book up if you can find it and you'll be sucked into the fastest moving story this side of Morgan's own biography.

This book, along with A Confederacy of Dunces and Mysterious Skin, is at the top of my list of late 20th century American novels. I love the way Morgan riffs on all our preconceptions about life on the street and the down-and-outs who inhabit that netherworld. I fell in love with his raw, twisted, soaring, trembling, searching characters. His genius has him creating a way-way-way cool language which gives that world a shiny, slick-stained life of its own. At the same time he imbues all his homeboys and girls with a shocking humanity... shocking only because most of us never recognize that humanity when we pass these fringe-dwellers on the street. This is a book which challenges the reader to actually believe that, no matter how much our personal histories, predilections, addictions, and traumas set us apart from each other, our basic need for love and acceptance binds us together in a much deeper, powerful way. Oh, and the wild-eyed plot kicks butt, too - climb on board and take the ride!