An uneven treatment of a significant landmark in U.S. obscenity law. The author treats the local developments in excruciating detail (e.g., two chapters on the later election of the state supreme court justices who ruled in favor of Tropic of Cancer), while comparatively skimming over the national decision at the U.S. Supreme Court (in other words, the one that really mattered). This obviously relates to the wealth of local information to which he had access, and he wanted to use every bit. He shouldn't have. Also a bit disconcerting is the way he often inserts himself as a source (he told me, when I talked to him, that kind of thing). ( )