Motel Nirvana: Dreaming of the New Age in the American Desert

Alone and seeking answers, McGrath found herself on a journey through the southwestern desert states in search of an American Dream of the spirit. From encounters with channelers, UFOlogists, and conspiracy theorists to investigations of alien abductees, tree huggers, angels, and immortals, McGrath's chronicle represents nothing less that the spiritual anatomy of a culture coming apart at the seams.

A 30-year-old British woman travels around the southwestern United States, the focal point of the New Age movement and a desert landscape where "someone you can rely upon to have an opinion about soap opera or McDonald's turns out to have seen angels in her backyard and the man who sells you a cup of coffee thinks himself a reincarnation of Nefertiti." McGrath struggles to maintain a sense of ironic amusement as she encounters an assortment of eccentric folks, from a pudgy, sexually confused "angel" to a "convergence" of people who have achieved immortality--or claim to, at any rate--by deciding that they don't feel like dying. American readers may find some difficulty warming up to McGrath's British prose style, but the humor and insight in Motel Nirvana are well worth the effort. --Ron Hogan