Name this book (possibly from early 90s)

Cafe Society
1

I read it then so it would make sense if it was written about then too. I really don’t have much to go on. All I can really remember is that

The author had what I thought was a weird name, had been in prison at some stage and was an ex-boyfriend of a singer, Janis Joplin probably.

It was set among ‘low lifes’ on the West Coast.

There was a character called ‘Rings and Things’, who’d becom a prostitute after waking up from a drinking binge covered head to foot in tatoos and deciding it was the only career open to her.

The main protagonist was a - darn now I’ve forgotten this word too - the guy who stands outside strip joints and tries to get folk to enter. Think he was a heroin addict too.

Any ideas ? (You were very impressive when I had a similarly vague query about a sci-fi short story a while back.)

2

Seth Morgan’s Homeboy

3

well done jsgoddess - I really enjoyed that book.

The author came from money and went to good schools, but went wrong and did drugs and time. He lived the life he depicted so well.

With the money he made off the book, he bought a motorcycle. Which he then proceeded to crash, killing himself and maybe his girlfriend, too…

Sad.

4

I am not worthy jsgoddess !
Thank you.

(I had a feeling theat the words ‘seth’ and ‘boy’ were involved but didn’t mention it, a friend was reading Vikram Seth’s Suitable Boy at the same time so I had begun to doubt.)

5

Pshaw!

Thing is, I was reading a bio online of Janis Joplin that included mention of her boyfriend at the time of her death. So I found that and plugged the name into A9 and found that he had been in prison and wrote a book, so I plugged the name into Amazon and voila!

6

If it were a carnival, the word would be “barker.” I don’t know if there’s a special word for barkers who work outside strip joints.