I know that the Herbert Golds, the Petitpierres, the elite Haitians, the jet-setting, sex starved tourists are part of the Oloffson. It's something I watch from the outside. Gold lets us inside. The only danger seems to be if you take this world of a few hundred people to be Haiti. He makes no pretense that he presents Haiti herself, just his life.
Gold tells great stories.
But, he doesn't write a coherent book. Perhaps these were pieces he's written here and there for magazines and then lightly edited them into this whole. I know this is the case with his hilarious monkey story. I remember reading the original. The book is filled with repetition.