The San Francisco Bay Area [is] the playpen of countercultures.

People once said they were "in" psychoanalysis, meaning they were committed to a long immersion. In a sense, they were writing their autobiographies.

[Ken] Kesey practices what has come to be known as gonzo journalism. The reporter, often intoxicated, fails to get the story but delivers instead a stylishly bizarre account that mocks conventional journalism.

His reserve of disdain appears endless. He could no sooner shut it off than a vampire could forgo his nightcap.

An able practitioner of glitz lit.

No one has ever done anything too bad to be forgiven.

The short story is like an old friend who calls whenever he is in town. We are happy to hear from it; we casually fan the embers of past intimacies, and buy it lunch.

Some of the characters in the story had a fortune in fantasy lives.