Heartbreaking.  I found this in the library and was thrilled.  Then reality hit.  Similar to Donna Leon's painful essays (don't read them), Mays has evolved into a caricature of a San Francisco snob.  Ms Mayes, buy a mirror, you are the plump ugly tourist you ridiculed throughout the overlong and historically inaccurate diatribe.  Here is the book: Moorish culture good, Jews were happy in servitude, Americans are horrible (other then the Mayes and their friends), Europeans are horrible, but not a horrible as Americans, and good food-unless you have to see Americans whilst eating.