Sex & Rage. Eve Babitz
course by: “Oh yes, of course they are pretty dreadful, but then they are terribly rich.” “Have the people who have taken The Larches got money?” “Oh well, then we’d better call.” The third phase was different again: “Well, dear, but are they amusing?” “Yes, well of course, they are not well off, and nobody knows where they came from, but they are very very amusing.”
—An Autobiography, Agatha Christie (1894–1977)
CONTENTS
The Problem With “The Book,” Part 1
The Problem with “The Book,” Part 2
The Third of July (Unbidden Aside)
The Foolproof Tableau Vivant Meets the Iceberg
Paradise Kisses and Smacks from Hell
La Jolla (Shuffle Off to Mexico)
Whoo, Whoo, Whoo, Whoo, Shuffle Off to Buffa . . .
New York, New York (The Mysterious East Lures the Innocent Virgin)
The Mysterious East Versus a Constitutional
The Mysterious East Meets an L.A. Orange
Complicated Woman, Complicated Dream
You’re Actually From That Place?
PART I
Jacaranda
Jacaranda’s name was pronounced “Jack-ah-ran-dah,” as in jack-o’-lan-tern, the same rhythm. It’s the name of a Central American flowering tree that grows in Los Angeles,