SOURCE: Review of The Power of Silence: Further Lessons of don Juan, in New York Times Book Review, February 7, 1988, pp. 20-1.

[In the following review of The Power of Silence, Adler argues that Castaneda's language and his presentation of ideas is too complicated.]

[The Power of Silence,] (t)his eighth book in a series that spans nearly 20 years[,] continues the anthropologist Carlos Castaneda's travels and teachings with Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian sorcerer or nagual. The formula is familiar: Mr. Castaneda continues to follow Don Juan's shamanic instructions while arguing with him rationally, listening to his stories and occasionally being "tricked" or jointed into altered states of consciousness. With each book, Mr. Castaneda makes a tiny bit of progress—although not much, considering how long he's been at it. Few people really care anymore whether Don Juan is real or fictional, a controversy that inspired articles and...