The drugstore is fairly empty, at the soda fountain a group of girls sip chocolate malts and a Filipino workman eats a hamburger. Everyone else is watching the Countess Osterberg-Steblechi, who pays no attention but very slowly revolves the paperbacked crime novels on their stands. It is the fate of the Countess to be stared at, and one cannot be surprised. She is like a balloon blown up into roughly human shape and ready to burst. All swollen and sagging contours except for her face; her beaky nose and sharp hooded eyes remind you of a falcon. She has hair that looks like a wig but is really her own dyed red, and wears a piece of garish linen printed all over with flowers and cornucopias like old-fashioned wallpaper.

- Gavin Lambert, The Slide Area