I didn't finish this one, which is very unusual for me. I know that Nichols said this was some of his best work, but it felt like a slog to me.

The Nirvana Blues is the third book in Nichols' New Mexico trilogy (which also includes The Milagro Beanfield War and The Magic Journey). The book takes place after the town of Chamisaville has been thoroughly modernized and focuses on one central character: Joe Miniver. Local shady businessmen and their dealings have caused land values to skyrocket to the point that it's impossible for the average worker to afford to purchase or own land. Joe is desperate for a place of his own and the only surviving Chamisaville native, elderly Eloy Irribarren, who is being forced to sell his land to pay off debts, is desperate to sell his farm to Joe before the land sharks grab it up because Joe will love the land and take care of it. So Joe invests all his savings in a drug scheme that will net him the money to purchase Eloy's land. Of course, nothing goes as planned and, to quote the back of the book, sets off "on a series of erotic adventures with three headstrong women, bringing him face-to-face with the terrors (and absurdity) of the modern man-woman scene."

The Milagro Beanfield War is one of my favorite books because Nichols was able to address serious issues in between absolutely hilarious moments. The Magic Journey was very good, but devastating to read because it lacked the humor to soften the blows from the serious issues. Nichols goes even farther down this track with The Nirvana Blues. It was just hard to read about a character who was so intent on messing up his life and everything that he had worked for, although the author tried as hard as he could to illustrate how this was just the natural result of selfish, greedy businessmen exploiting the land, its resources, and its people for their own personal gain. I'm glad I read all three books, and I'll reread the first book, but I won't go near the other two again. The subject matter was just too harsh. ( )

I gave up on this book after 77 pages. With hundreds more pages ago, I felt there were much better books to be read than to slog through this one. The narrative seemed rambling and the dialogue bloated, with characters who were eccentric but not engaging, and there seemed to point to any of it.

Too bad, because I enjoyed the rather lengthy prologue, which traced the recent history of Nichol's fictional town of Chamisaville--a thinly-disguised Taos, where Nichols resides. Having spent some time in Taos myself, I found his depiction quite humorous: what was once a nice little place where Anglos, Natives, and Chicano farmers enjoyed life together, only to find it all turned into something else when all the New-Agers and developers moved in. ( )