Herbert Gold Critical Essay | Critical Review by Dick Roraback

Critical Review by Dick Roraback

SOURCE: “Feelin' Groovy,” in Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 4, 1993, p. 11.

In the following review, Roraback explores the characters and civilization portrayed in Bohemia.

This is what Bohemia has come to:

—A Personal Ad in the Village Voice reads, “Slim, natural blond, one child, independent means, seeks man with one earring, ponytail or moral equivalent.” Moral equivalent?

—In Coconut Grove, once Miami Beach's Haight-Ashbury, now “an outpatient clinic for women suffering from henna dependency,” a young man tells an older woman, “My father died.” “Did you go to the funeral?” “No, I did it all by credit card.”

—In ex-Bo Carmel, Calif., “now priced onto another plane,” Herb Gold is stuck in traffic “behind a red-bearded fireman with his left arm extended straight out” and asks him if he's turning left. “No,” he says. “Drying my fingernails.”

Unblemished Bohemians, people who used to contemplate their navels, now...
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