Out of Babylon: Ghosts of Grossinger's

Richard Grossinger, an anthropologist by training, a cultural rebel by inclination, and supposed heir apparent to the great, eponymous Catskill resort by birth, presents an intense, personal story in the form of a "nonfiction novel." Grossinger recounts old dreams, lists every college course in which he enrolled, and enumerates the courses he taught. Then there's the tarot, tai chi, and homeopathic studies; the poets and baseball heroes; the shamans and Edgar Cayce; the UFOs and monuments on Mars. He recalls his mean mother and painfully troubled brother, as well as multiple fathers and a phalanx of counterculture colleagues. Often it sounds like a transcript from an analyst's couch. Still, Out of Babylon is a well-written personal story, ultimately sad and disquieting because it rings true.