Woah, did a little more scouring around after my last comments-reply (here), and found this:

Reading L.A.: Richard Meltzer tracks down the ugly (Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times)

Sample:

“There’s a seen-it-all informality to the writing, and an impatient, galloping pace — Meltzer’s gift for inventing new contractions is impressive — but his task here is, well, nothing short of monumental: To take on the whole massive cityscape of Los Angeles, with its ‘displays of florid vanity’ and its long boulevards stuffed with misguided attempts at one kind of period revival or another. One of the best entries here, on an office building in the Miracle Mile, has a first sentence that could stand alone on the page: ‘And then there’s neo-Tudor.'”

Someone bring this book back in print now! (Mind you, I still haven’t read the golf quickie I own by R.M., though I’m proud to have it on my shelf.)