“While a romp through the New Age is not everyone’s cup of tea, novelist, publisher and editor Sobel (Minyan) does a fine job making his 30-year quest for spiritual awakening widely identifiable with a funny, clear-eyed account that takes readers around the world and through a gauntlet of gurus, shamans, workshops and retreats, not to mention sex and drugs (legal and otherwise). Sobel’s twin assets are his willingness and his sense of humor, both apparent from the start in his encounter with a guru named Ram Dass, whose first instruction to Sobel is to take off his pants (“So I did”).
“Other episodes include Primal Therapy training with a teacher who rents his office space for porn production, the “est” training that teaches people to accept reality as it is (and then rope everyone they know into the program),
and tours through Jerusalem, India and Brazil. Sobel’s spiritual journey doesn’t provide any answers (these days, the title on his business card is “Human Being”) but provides lots of engaging, regular-guy perspective on
modern man’s confounding array of ancient and contemporary fulfillment schemes.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
“...funny, beautifully written, and often extremely moving and thought-provoking.”
— Colin Wilson, author, The Outsider
" ...balancing between wisdom and absurdity , Eliezer Sobel provides a generous contribution to countercultural history.”
— Paul Krassner, author, One Hand Jerking
"Eliezer Sobel’s 99th Monkey is a cult hit here in NYC! ”
— Charley Wininger, L.P., author, Listening to Ecstasy
"This book made me happier than most of the spiritual books I read these days. Enjoy."
— Wes `Scoop’ Nisker, author
The Big Bang, The Buddha, & the Baby Boom
