A. Woman, and Sex and Rage, all works characterized by effervescent, baccalian narratives and characters living at breakneck speeds, threatening to spin violently out of control. To get an idea of what the heroines of her stories are like, think of Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts crossed with the Cosmo girl .

A. at its best: alluringly sexy but also heartbreakingly unpredictable, beautiful but indifferent to what you want from it. Black Swans further celebrates the phenomenon of Eve Babitz, cementing her reputation as the voice of a generation.Babitz was living proof that rock-and-roll decadence also could be elegant and that muses could be the sharpest tacks in the room. With a keen eye and a rambunctious voice, Babitz tells the story of a generation’s version of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and the recovery from it all.

On the page, Babitz is pure pleasure--a perpetual-motion machine of no-stakes elation and champagne fizz. Driving up to Gregson’s former hilltop mansion, Babitz and her beau listen as the Rodney King trial plays out on the radio. And her irreverence in the face of persistent expectations of feminine decorum—reanimated like a sociocultural zombie during this administration—can cause a sigh of relief . The Tibet piece perfectly captured the cluelessness that first met the advent of AIDS, and "Black Swans" is an exquisitely modulated and restrained recounting of how the struggle between men and women can guarantee everyone's unhappiness.As a young girl growing up in Los Angeles, I spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out who I was. Her short stories consider the pros and cons of black lacquered swimming pools, and let us peer into the dining room of the Bel Air Hotel where Babitz — tripping on LSD — and her boyfriend are so drunk they can barely stay in their seats. Babitz induced a whole spectrum of emotion from the lightheartedness of the main character to the devastating ending.

Through her honesty, sensitivity and her singular sense of humour, the author wrote about the human condition .

Babitz’s contradictory views on male-female dynamics — namely her enthusiastic support for sexual liberation, opposed by this frustrating concept of a female intellectual binary that only serves to appease insecure men — is somewhat understandable in the context of the inherited gender roles that were still looming large when she was growing up in the 1950s and early ’60s. If you are at a loss for a seed idea, use a plot generator site (there are a variety of them on the web) for the same reason. The black swan was a metaphor for all that could not exist, until of course, due to an intrepid sailor, the impossible became possible. Babitz delivers the anticipated accounts of faltering love affairs and a who’s who rundown of Hollywood’s social register, but her trademark style steeped in voyeurism is tempered by middle age.