It's hard to pick and choose from these tales of wildness and woe -- there's just too much juiciness and care involved -- but the common denominator is Stanley Booth's identification with, friendship, appreciation and concern for the wellbeing of the musicians who create America's only indigenous art form.

In "Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan," William Hjorstberg has come not just to bury Brautigan, or to praise him, but to reap some kind of endurance award for having simply put up with the petulant poet for so long.