As reviewed in the NY Times:
ON THE EDGE By Edward St. Aubyn 260 pages. Picador. $16. With its mock-earnest references to “the astral plane,” “past-life regression work” and “vibrational energy,” Edward St. Aubyn’s “On the Edge” takes full advantage of an easy target: the New Age movement, teeming with frauds and fanatical gurus. Released in Britain in 1998 and being published for the first time in the United States, this novel follows a group of wretched characters in search of enlightenment, inner peace and relief from impotence, among other things. Peter Thorpe, a burned-out London banker, visits a California self-help retreat, posing as a devotee while obsessively trying to track down Sabine, a beautiful German woman he spent just three days with. The brokenhearted Crystal Bukowski proves a welcome distraction and rather adept at Tantric sex. Various other transcendence seekers converge in Big Sur as the narrative hurtles toward an ending that’s sweet, scathing, pornographic and deeply funny.
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