Deserted Cities of the Heart

Shiner begins this novel realistically in a contemporary Mexico where Rolling Stone reporter John Carmichael has been drawn in his search for news, and anthropologist Thomas Yates has come to search for his missing brother, rock musician Eddie. Eventually, they meet among the ancient Mayan ruins where Eddie has gone on a pilgrimage with the Mayan descendants among whom he now lives. There, while trapped between Cuban backed insurgents and a clandestine American force, Eddie pursues his experiments with mushrooms. He claims that instead of psychedelic visions, they actually transport him back in time to his own past and to the great days of Mayan culture. Although well written and occasionally thoughtful, the narrative, whose opening reminds one of warmed-over Robert Stone, moves to fulfill the cliched apocalyptic aspirations of the title. (August)