AMERICAN TRICKSTER

Remember Carlos Casteneda? An icon of late-20th century counterculture—and one of the greatest literary hoaxers of all time—receives his due.

In a smart and seductive prologue, debut biographer Marshall introduces their subject: a little man from Peru who “lied all the time,” about literally everything including his name and native country. Casteneda’s famous series of books, detailing his spiritual lessons and psychedelic experiences under the tutelage of a Yaqui shaman named Don Juan, published at the time as works of anthropology, “were novels. Phenomenological ghost stories.” To those familiar with the books, this won’t be much of a shock, but what’s surprising is what Marshall is able to do with the backstory, told in spectacular detail from Casteneda’s ancestral origins in South America all the way through the experiences of his followers and associates after his death in 1998—a group of which the author became an honorary member during their decades of research. Marshall’s voice and presence is strong all the way through the book, particularly in the myriad David Foster Wallace-style footnotes. In an early example concerning what kind of vehicle Casteneda drove while in grad school at the University of California, they tell us, “I spent a rather enormous amount of time early in the writing of this book—still believing that, out there somewhere, I’d find a fact tree—attempting to figure out what kind of cars Margaret bought.” Unable to ever definitively answer this question or the many that followed, they realize that they just have to choose what they think most likely, and that this “is how history is constructed, little-tiny bit by little-tiny bit.” It’s quite interesting to read about the academics who originally legitimized Casteneda’s work, less so to follow the machinations of the cult-like group that grew up around him, though the details are exceptionally bizarre. Some of the truth we now have access to came from a couple of marginalized followers who made a project of collecting and going through the trash outside the digs of the inner circle. Unfortunately, there are too many characters to keep track of and not enough reason to care, though Marshall’s insightful explanations of how “high control groups,” aka cults, operate are useful and important.

A project of epic proportions, pulled off with remarkable élan.