In the end, Kamiya has written a fitting ode to an exceptional city. Also impressive is the author’s uncanny grasp of the bay’s natural history and the way that the landscape continues to shape the lives of current San Franciscans. The sea-winds are her kiss, And the sea-gull is her dove Cleanly and strong she is My cool, grey city of love. It is the other stories that truly impress-including the historical ones about the city’s founding and its original Native American inhabitants. In Cool Gray City of Love Gary Kamiya crushes on San Francisco in 49 different ways - from its landscapes and architecture to a fabled past encompassing the. Tho they tear the rose from her brow, To her is ever my vow Ever to her I give my duty First in rapture and first in beauty, Wayward, passionate, brave, Glad of the life God gave. Though Kamiya puts his own spin on these tales, they seem all too familiar. He includes chapters about the AIDS crisis, the Beat Generation, dive bars, and theaters, sprinkling in references to the city’s counter-culture revolution, literary legacy, and dot-com booms and busts. It doesn’t come as much surprise that Kamiya, a former culture critic and book editor at the San Francisco Examiner and cofounder of, writes insightfully about San Francisco’s cultural and artistic heritage. In the introduction, Kamiya calls this work “a love letter to the place in the world that means the world to me.” It’s an apt description, because these 49 vignettes are written in a confessional first-person tone that invokes a conversation between two old friends: Kamiya and the city he has called home for over 40 years.
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