Stephen Siciliano's Sidewalk Smokers are driven outdoors by the most selective kind of lawmaking, engaged in resisting the overregulation of American life, a cabal of rootless cosmopolitans on the make for the big break.

The Smokers unite behind one of their own, taking on a media giant over the publication of some nude photos. Lethargic sensualists, craven in their drive for publicity, the group's saving grace is that they are uncommonly kind to one another. Do we really know people like this? Probably not, which may in the end be what Mr. Siciliano is after.

"Like brilliance on caffeine 'Smokers' radiates in all directions and dimensions yet returns to its zero point as surely as the swallows return to Capitstrano."-The Espresso, San Diego

"It's clearly the book of the year."-Highwayscribery blog