This is not light reading. It is an intense portrayal of a jazz musician's life in the Bay Area in the '50's and '60's. There are wonderful descriptions of how the lead character becomes involved in music, what it means to him and how it appears to be the one positive thread that lasts him his whole life. It is fun to read about the San Francisco jazz scene and the various characters who come, go and sometimes stay.

The dark part of the book is the story of the power of heroin and other drugs that started out as part of the creative experience of the jazz musician and ultimately lead to destruction, jail, or a painful, gut-wrenching and slow road to recovery.

This novel has the ring of truth and is both a very personal story about a jazz musician and a powerful evocation of a time and a place.