A place in Colusa

Benet's poetic introduction says much:
"Hibiscus, bougainvillea, night blooming jasmine
boutiques, mosaic tiles, fancy glassware
La Jolla, Tiburon, and Carmel
screw those places.
Gonna move up the valley to Colusa
open a restaurant near the levee
hire a waitress with varicose veins.
If she gives me a tumble
gonna marry her."
Benet describes the dark side of working class life. He was raised on Chicago's south side, and there is no easy way to escape that reality. When this book was published, he was a longshoreman in San Francisco, working on his second novel--about longshoremen in San Francisco. His prose here reads like poetry and his poetry reads like prose.