American Soul

``My own traveling was, I suppose, postlinear and post-nonlinear. I wasn't sure where I was going, or even why. Yet beyond my subjective meandering, objectively speaking I was part of a vast process through which America was bringing about a single linearly connected world.'' Equally ``postlinear'' or ``post-nonlinear,'' Schurmann's book is awash with redundancies, pointless asides, vague terms and ill-argued points. In the end, Schurmann, a sinologist who with Orville Schell founded the Pacific News Service, seems to be saying nothing more than this: The American Dream of individual liberation, consumerism and democracy was shown by the revolutionary '60s to be fundamentally shaky; and while the state could support the outward manifestations of that Dream, the communal underpinnings or ``society'' were faltering for lack of direction. That direction must be provided by soul, i.e., religion. The theme itself is harmless, if not particularly interesting, but Schurmann's tortuous style pushes the book to the absurd flights: ``a Jew and an Arab meet in the middle of the field to begin a process that can lead to bloodshed or to healing. But whatever happens, justice will finally emerge because it will have happened just as Hollyood would have portrayed it-in a field with a setting sun, the two sides ranged against each other, and two great samurai striding out into the field. Even when the film is terrible, one senses God in the heavens ready to let the spirit of justice flow down while blood is spilled and many weep over their fallen sons and fathers.'' (Jan.)