Despite the author's stated penchant for noir mystery, I would categorize this book as literary fiction because it immerses the reader so deeply into the characters' private lives and how events change them, and because the descriptive language has such depth and richness. Right from page one, we are treated to images like, "When Los Angeles was a sun-blown pueblo waiting for the movie to begin, San Francisco was the city, a fabulous metropolis by the bay -- straight streets driven reckless up her seven steep hills of yellow sand; tall buildings perched on turbulent slopes like exclamation marks ..." And so it goes throughout the book.
I won't even attempt to describe the plot, but the there are whorehouses, jazzy nightclubs, bootlegger gangs, the mysteries of Chinatown, mobsters, street gangs, ambitious politicians, and the city's wealthy elite. They all meet up and mix up together, spiraling inward to a confrontation right about the time of a Presidential visit to the city. The author does a great job hinting at the trouble to come - whether forbidden love between a rich girl and a Chinese man, a coming war between bootlegger gangs, or political intrigue - the reader keeps turning the page for more.
The book is long - 440 pages paperback - but worth it for the excellent atmospherics, juicy characters and their relationships, historical detail, and great action scenes.
