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Brace yourself for a fast-reading, fun-filled, fact-packed chronicle of California and US history.

Like a Johnny Carson monologue, this memoir serves up a punchline on every page, with personal anecdotes that reduce giant figures (Richard Nixon, Jess Unruh and others) to a human scale. Often merciless but never mean-spirited, Kaye is like the perfect guest at a cocktail party of politicos and press corps personalities.

All in all, a great read.

I have read a couple of memoirs by more 'famous' news people - who often end up sounding like the celebrities they are supposed to be reporting on. Kaye's book has a more authentic voice of the `working press'. (Probably an endangered species as one newspaper after another bites the dust.)
I share Kaye's vivid memories of a remarkable Southern California from a few decades ago, and he also helped me recapture some more recent national history that I really don't want to forget about.
They say news reporters give us the first take on history. This book is a fun, fast moving account from a front row seat to just yesterday. I liked it.

An autobiography of a journalist from Southern California doesn't drag you enthusiastically into its reading. But your reluctance turns quickly to cheers and amazement as Peter Kaye outlines a career that takes him from a small newspaper in Alhambra, CA to the highest levels of government as a campaign manager for some of the memorable politicians of recent times. He had a seeming rare skill of sliding back and forth from managing or taking part in political campaigns to reporting on them from his home base of the San Diego Union and Tribune before the merger of the two. It is clear in both endeavors that he was honest, truthful and a man of great integrity.He, like Ernest Hemingway, always worked from the middle of the street. The book will take hold of you and make you finish it within hours after picking it up. Peter Kaye's odyssey is definitely worth consuming in a whole.

Anyone whos interested in politics or history will find this book absolutely addicting. It truly provides a unique look at some of the most relevant and extraordinary events of our time. What a life!