by Philip K. Dick, Vintage Books, NY, 1982. Philip K. Dick is a modern science fiction novelist best know for films made from his books including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly and Minority Report. This was his last novel.
I read so much heavy stuff that I decided to lighten up. This book was fun to read. It is set in Berkley, California, and is very loosely based on the final days of Bishop James 
Pike. I was particularly intrigued because it opens with Alan Watts on his houseboat, the Vallejo, sitting in the mud of Sausalito. I have a fond memory of spending a day with Ram Dass on that boat in a commemoration of Alan Watts. The book rummages through highly dysfunctional relationships, madness, dabbling in the psychic and a world of people who know philosophy and the classics. The bishop quotes Dante:
"He who learns must suffer. And even in our own sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."
Dr. Manlove
