THE KINGDOM OF SHIVAS IRONS

This book, fiction disguised as memoir, has something for everybody--mind fodder for the credulous, high satire for the skeptical, palliative for golfers, Scots travelogue for armchair travelers. Echoing Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the bestselling hoaxes of Carlos Castaneda, Michael Murphy seeks nirvana on the golf courses of Scotland. His quest involves a hodgepodge of Eastern mysticism, ersatz Platonic philosophy, spiritualism, white magic, hauntings and ESP. Oh, yes! Golf, too! Murphy admits poking a little fun at duffers, but his mind-expanding passages seem to send-up the whole Esalen human growth potential movement, which he helped found. Is he trying to be funny? Narrator John Hannah takes him at face value. He plays it straight--and adeptly--in authentic Scottish tones, giving us all the drama and epiphany of Murphy's striving while letting the humor, intentional or otherwise, fall where it may. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAR/APR 98]