SOURCE: “Lifestyles of the Not-Yet Famous,” in Washington Post Book World, Vol. 23, No. 16, April 18, 1993, p. 3.

In the following positive review, Cook praises Gold's journalistic style in Bohemia.

Herbert Gold, dependably fine novelist and wonderful short-story writer, has for years maintained an identity that, if not exactly secret, is not sufficiently known. He is also a journalist. Unless you read the travel magazines for which he often writes, including Playboy, and his hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, this facet of his talent may have escaped your attention altogether. True, he did publish a collection of his pieces, A Walk on the West Side, 10 or 12 years ago, but it was probably the least read of all his books (well over a score of them, by the way).

And let's get things straight. Herbert Gold is not just a journalist—he's a superb journalist. Writing in that mode, he casts...