TANGIER: City of the Dream by...

TANGIER: City of the Dream by Iain Finlayson (Flamingo/HarperCollins: $12; 372 pp., illustrated, paperback original). Finlayson offers pleasantly gossipy tales of the city whose name has become synonymous with drugs, sex and expatriate debauchery. His accounts form a series of set-pieces: William S. Burroughs wrestling with a runaway drug habit; Joe Orton picking up handsome young men; Barbara Hutton, the poorest and richest of all poor little rich girls, drunkenly receiving guests in her jewel-encrusted palace. This mildly scandalous history is aimed readers familiar with the work of Orton, Burroughs, Bowles, et al., rather tabloid fans.