From the era of the Puritans settling their first American colony until the present, many Americans have been on a spiritual quest, a seeking out of truth about themselves and God. Although the term New Age is now often used to describe a certain kind of mysticism involving reincarnation, conversing with the dead, magical crystals, and some Eastern religious views, gurus and Eastern mysticism have long appealed to Americans, and traces of them in American society can be found from the mid-1800s when seances and tales of Atlantis became popular.

The Last Guru focuses on spiritual fads, especially those involving gurus of one sort or another. Some readers may feel that these fads are too easy targets, some of which seem self-satirical. Furthermore, Pinkwater risks angering those whose particular spiritual passions of the moment are ridiculed in The Last Guru—and the author does...