Song of Ourself

Related Content

• Pencils Down
  November 30, 2011
• Gold Dust Lounge Requests Historic Landmark Designation
  February 1, 2012
• Today Is Billy Sipple Day: Honoring Gay Ex-Marine Who Saved Gerald Ford's Life
  September 22, 2011
• Gold Dust Lounge Update: Landlord Says He Won't Negotiate Lease on Popular Bar
  January 18, 2012
• Gold Dust Lounge: Popular S.F. Bar Gets Booted from Union Square
  January 10, 2012

More About

• Madame Wong
• Herb Caen
• Water for Elephants
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Books and Literature

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Rodes Fishburne is a Grotto writer, so it was only a matter of time before someone bought his first novel. That happens to people who belong to the Grotto — they publish, early and often. Fishburne greatly increased his chances by writing a comic novel about San Francisco with a Jazz Age swagger, full of the dangle of cable cars and snap of fedoras, the stink of corrupt politicians and the smell of cigars, and also tweed. Only Going to See the Elephant is not set in the 1940s, but rather today, giving readers the disorienting effect that the thick-steak, Madame Wong, fogbound city of your dreams — really of everybody’s dreams, of Herb Caen’s and Original Joe’s and the Chronicle’s dreams — is happening right now. For the most part, it’s irresistible. The main character, dreaming of fiction and dead white writers, instead finds himself working as a famous reporter, laying bare the secrets of the city by simply “listening” to it, which allows Fishburne to paint the city and its people. It’s a pulpish, brisk read that’s mostly interested in you having a good time — it could be the “If you liked Water for Elephants …” novel of 2009, if our local booksellers get behind it.
Thu., Jan. 29, 12:30 p.m., 2009