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The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora: A Novel
Who is Neftoon Zamora? According to stories, he (or she) was part Zuni, part Martian, part Delta Blues player, and had come from the Great Spirit, Mars, or some place in Mississippi, thousands of years ago. Is Neftoon Zamora merely folklore, a tale told by fools to children? Or does Neftoon Zamora really exist, living in a small, hidden settlement in the mountains of New Mexico? Welcome to THE LONG SANDY HAIR OF NEFTOON ZAMORA, a first novel of magical realism by Michael Nesmith.
245 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1998
12 people are currently reading
196 people want to read
About the author
Michael Nesmith
32 books137 followersMichael Nesmith's career in music and television took him from starring in The Monkees to a celebrated run of albums as a solo artist and in the First National Band. He created the TV show Popclips, a forerunner of what would become MTV, and produced the films Repo Man and Tapeheads. He is the author of two novels and the founder of the Pacific Arts Corporation, which produces projects in the worlds of audio, video, and virtual reality, including Videoranch 3D. He lives in Carmel, California.
Photo Credit: Alex Battaglia
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Photo Credit: Alex Battaglia
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
June 13, 2012
Technically I listened to the audiobook version of this, (c'mon, it's Michael Nesmith! He could read the phone book and I'd still be there!) This book was a really interesting mix of bizarre, gritty Americana storytelling with an aspect of audiobiography woven in. At times the book becomes more about abstract ideas and the authors strong views rather than actual storytelling, but as it's broken into fables and legends in places it works pretty well. It's the sort of book where I think different readers will take away different things. At heart it's a quest story, but it seems more about taking ordinary viewpoints and putting them on their heads. Will look forward to getting my hands on his other book in due course.
August 6, 2012
shocking to me that I haven't reviewed this book yet. I read it when it was first published, and it's lived in vividly in my memory since then. It's haunting and beautiful, and it's also an incisive satire. Maybe you can judge a writer by his admirers, and just look at what Douglas Adams and Wendy Wasserstein had to say about "The Long Sandy Hair". There's been no greater artistic innovator than Michael Nesmith, and that he's been overlooked in so many different genres is a shame. This is a great book.
April 15, 2019
What a a twisty road that was! Parts were unsettling, parts were funny and parts were super weird. It felt like a mix of a mythic epic and Hotel California. I liked it.
I interviewed Michael Nesmith about this book on the All the Books Show! https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/in...
I interviewed Michael Nesmith about this book on the All the Books Show! https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/in...
January 12, 2010
Here, let me lay down a tale of Neftoon Zamora...
Thus begins Michael Nesmith's folkloric tale of the importance of respecting knowledge above ignorance - of spirituality beyond power and earthly means. The most important things in life are often the things that we overlook. Simplicity is often better than complexity - and oh so much more precious.
Nesmith's prose is like his music - beautiful in its simplicity and apt to sneak up on you with a laugh when you least expect it. Nesmith's brilliance shines through in his writing and in his insight into some of the most overlooked aspects of the human conditions.
While The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora may not change your life, it will certainly make you think a little harder. It will allow you to question some previously held tenets of - if not your life, then certainly the lives of others.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who can get their hands on it. While some elements of it come forth only after multiple readings, the basic premise and nature of the piece is well worth at least one go around.
Thus begins Michael Nesmith's folkloric tale of the importance of respecting knowledge above ignorance - of spirituality beyond power and earthly means. The most important things in life are often the things that we overlook. Simplicity is often better than complexity - and oh so much more precious.
Nesmith's prose is like his music - beautiful in its simplicity and apt to sneak up on you with a laugh when you least expect it. Nesmith's brilliance shines through in his writing and in his insight into some of the most overlooked aspects of the human conditions.
While The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora may not change your life, it will certainly make you think a little harder. It will allow you to question some previously held tenets of - if not your life, then certainly the lives of others.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who can get their hands on it. While some elements of it come forth only after multiple readings, the basic premise and nature of the piece is well worth at least one go around.
March 10, 2013
Somehow this works. An old favourite...and not just because I was gifted a signed version. A journey worth reading. X Angelina.
December 23, 2025
The first time I read this book was sometime in middle school. I had recently discovered The Monkees and was on a hunt to collect every single piece of the band I possibly could at the time. I had already read Micky's autobiography I'm A Believer (which is excellent, I don't think my 5-star rating would change nowadays) and once I'd discovered that Mike Nesmith had written a novel, I knew I absolutely had to read it. It was already long out of print when I ordered it used online (and I somehow managed to luck my way into a signed copy) but it's been so long that I'd completely forgotten most of it by now.
Cut to this year, when I ordered another copy of the book for a friend of mine (yet another signed copy - from the same book signing as mine, in fact!) and decided to re-read the book before giving it over to him. Reading it through the lens of an adult who isn't fully blinded by fan worship was certainly an experience. The pros of this book are that Mike Nesmith definitely knows how to write about the beauty of life. He's always struck me as the kind of person who looked upon life with a sense of wonder (he did have a large amount of cynicism about The Monkees for a long time, but thankfully overcame it and embraced it before his death) and his writing does have beauty to it (though much of it is indecipherable, as he was also no stranger to recreational drug use) and there is a good sprinkling of the humor that Nez was known for. "The Monkees were comedians first and musicians second", he was quoted as saying, and rightly so.
The story is autobiographical in a sense, and he never seems to fully confirm that all of this didn't happen (more or less.) The dedication is "For Neffie", implying that she is someone he knew, or just a way to add realism to the story. The lead character goes by "Nez" and while he is never explicitly stated to be recognized as a member of The Monkees, a later character does allude to knowing who he is. He's also stated to know how to fly an aircraft, and Nez did serve in the Air Force so he was able to write about this with a good level of accuracy.
The most conflicting parts of the story show in the fact that he shows himself to be ahead of his time in multiple ways and not-so-much in others. There is a gay POC character who is treated sympathetically and is never made the butt of any jokes (which was pretty enlightened for 1998, sadly) as well as mention of the legendary singer Neftoon Zamora sounding "neither male or female" and "androgynous" multiple times throughout the book. Also the fact that nobody who tells the legend can decide if they were a man or a woman, with many conflicting stories based on who is telling it. It's a passing detail, but it wasn't lost on me that Nez also discusses how there was "no credit for single women" back in the day, which is undoubtedly a reference to him being raised by a single mother - Bette Nesmith of Liquid Paper fame and the founder of the Bette Claire McMurray Foundation, a philanthropic trust to help women in business, something Michael continued to run after her death.
On the flipside of that, however, there are some uncomfortable sections involving race, where the POC character takes on an affected accent (he eventually drops it as it's part of an act, but it reminded me of the black phonetic English commonly seen in Civil War literature) there's a Chinese character calling the black character a slur (leading to a conversation about the difference between 'A' and 'R' that may have seemed enlightened in 1998 but comes across much worse nowadays) as well as lots of writing about Native Americans that constantly teeters on the line of appropriation but is written about with a great deal of respect and admiration by the author. (He even mentions how he himself found it misguided when white people tried to wear Native American clothing and is only doing it in the story because the clothes were given to him.)
But all of that can honestly be dismissed as Michael being a product of his time, trying his best to reconcile his 60s learnings with the modern age. The main flaw with this book is that Nez absolutely did not know how to pace a novel. It starts with him hearing about the legend of Neftoon Zamora, going to search for answers, and finding a girl who claims to be her as part of a scam run by a diner. All good so far. Then they go to find the lost city of Welach that is told to be nothing but legend. Also good. Then all of a sudden the story takes a hard left turn into a kidnapping plot (???) that leads to a strange bunker where an evil billionaire is running a CP website (it genuinely felt like he was predicting Elon Musk - if there's one thing Nez could spot a mile away, it's that people with too much money and time on their hands were bad news) and they suddenly get raided by the ATF??? It was a very sudden ending that leaves you with a sense of "that's it?" rather than a sense of mystery. It's very much a "this happens and then that happens and then that happens" kind of story without a whole lot of payoff.
But somehow, I can't bring myself to call this a bad book. I do believe that this is probably cobbled together from some true experiences Nez had, not entirely true but not entirely false either, and perhaps a bit dragged down from Nez's conflicting fear and reverence of new technology of the 90s. It's definitely worth a read if you're a Monkees fan, but without that sense of context for the man himself it's likely not going to be of any interest. But like the man himself says, you got to trust the pilot when you get on the plane.
Cut to this year, when I ordered another copy of the book for a friend of mine (yet another signed copy - from the same book signing as mine, in fact!) and decided to re-read the book before giving it over to him. Reading it through the lens of an adult who isn't fully blinded by fan worship was certainly an experience. The pros of this book are that Mike Nesmith definitely knows how to write about the beauty of life. He's always struck me as the kind of person who looked upon life with a sense of wonder (he did have a large amount of cynicism about The Monkees for a long time, but thankfully overcame it and embraced it before his death) and his writing does have beauty to it (though much of it is indecipherable, as he was also no stranger to recreational drug use) and there is a good sprinkling of the humor that Nez was known for. "The Monkees were comedians first and musicians second", he was quoted as saying, and rightly so.
The story is autobiographical in a sense, and he never seems to fully confirm that all of this didn't happen (more or less.) The dedication is "For Neffie", implying that she is someone he knew, or just a way to add realism to the story. The lead character goes by "Nez" and while he is never explicitly stated to be recognized as a member of The Monkees, a later character does allude to knowing who he is. He's also stated to know how to fly an aircraft, and Nez did serve in the Air Force so he was able to write about this with a good level of accuracy.
The most conflicting parts of the story show in the fact that he shows himself to be ahead of his time in multiple ways and not-so-much in others. There is a gay POC character who is treated sympathetically and is never made the butt of any jokes (which was pretty enlightened for 1998, sadly) as well as mention of the legendary singer Neftoon Zamora sounding "neither male or female" and "androgynous" multiple times throughout the book. Also the fact that nobody who tells the legend can decide if they were a man or a woman, with many conflicting stories based on who is telling it. It's a passing detail, but it wasn't lost on me that Nez also discusses how there was "no credit for single women" back in the day, which is undoubtedly a reference to him being raised by a single mother - Bette Nesmith of Liquid Paper fame and the founder of the Bette Claire McMurray Foundation, a philanthropic trust to help women in business, something Michael continued to run after her death.
On the flipside of that, however, there are some uncomfortable sections involving race, where the POC character takes on an affected accent (he eventually drops it as it's part of an act, but it reminded me of the black phonetic English commonly seen in Civil War literature) there's a Chinese character calling the black character a slur (leading to a conversation about the difference between 'A' and 'R' that may have seemed enlightened in 1998 but comes across much worse nowadays) as well as lots of writing about Native Americans that constantly teeters on the line of appropriation but is written about with a great deal of respect and admiration by the author. (He even mentions how he himself found it misguided when white people tried to wear Native American clothing and is only doing it in the story because the clothes were given to him.)
But all of that can honestly be dismissed as Michael being a product of his time, trying his best to reconcile his 60s learnings with the modern age. The main flaw with this book is that Nez absolutely did not know how to pace a novel. It starts with him hearing about the legend of Neftoon Zamora, going to search for answers, and finding a girl who claims to be her as part of a scam run by a diner. All good so far. Then they go to find the lost city of Welach that is told to be nothing but legend. Also good. Then all of a sudden the story takes a hard left turn into a kidnapping plot (???) that leads to a strange bunker where an evil billionaire is running a CP website (it genuinely felt like he was predicting Elon Musk - if there's one thing Nez could spot a mile away, it's that people with too much money and time on their hands were bad news) and they suddenly get raided by the ATF??? It was a very sudden ending that leaves you with a sense of "that's it?" rather than a sense of mystery. It's very much a "this happens and then that happens and then that happens" kind of story without a whole lot of payoff.
But somehow, I can't bring myself to call this a bad book. I do believe that this is probably cobbled together from some true experiences Nez had, not entirely true but not entirely false either, and perhaps a bit dragged down from Nez's conflicting fear and reverence of new technology of the 90s. It's definitely worth a read if you're a Monkees fan, but without that sense of context for the man himself it's likely not going to be of any interest. But like the man himself says, you got to trust the pilot when you get on the plane.
October 24, 2025
Couldn’t tell you what the hell happened but it was interesting!! The way he writes is so descriptive and poetical if that makes sense 😭 it’s just the whole storyline was a tad confusing but maybe he wanted us to be left with no answers because he got no answers. The fact that he’s the main character made me giggle
Overall a weird whimsical trippy book it was cool to learn about a hidden mythology type world
Overall a weird whimsical trippy book it was cool to learn about a hidden mythology type world
March 31, 2022
Eh….idk if it held up tbh. I read this the first time when I was about 15. I was wildly into the Monkees (I still very much love the monkees) and I read this on my kindle while stealing the wifi from my neighbors to load the next page of Mike Nesmith’s website. He had it all posted there chapter by chapter with extra parts that didn’t make it into the printed book. I remember reading it in the garage where I had an old TV set up and an ugly couch and tapes of the Monkees from a marathon that came on when Davy Jones died. Anyway I remember liking it.
But reading it now, I remember the names of the characters, the names of the cities, the first chapter, and that’s literally all. I didn’t remember a single thing that happened after that first chapter and honestly it was all just a bunch of pretentious fake deep rambling. Idk what I liked about it before and idk if I can say I like it now. But it’s Mike Nesmith and he was my second favorite Monkee (after Peter Tork) and now he’s passed and I thought I could read his book and try to remember him for myself.
Anyway. It was okay. A weird bunch of rambling. Absolutely not a romance no matter what the inside flap says. At least worth one read. 3/5 stars to be generous.
But reading it now, I remember the names of the characters, the names of the cities, the first chapter, and that’s literally all. I didn’t remember a single thing that happened after that first chapter and honestly it was all just a bunch of pretentious fake deep rambling. Idk what I liked about it before and idk if I can say I like it now. But it’s Mike Nesmith and he was my second favorite Monkee (after Peter Tork) and now he’s passed and I thought I could read his book and try to remember him for myself.
Anyway. It was okay. A weird bunch of rambling. Absolutely not a romance no matter what the inside flap says. At least worth one read. 3/5 stars to be generous.
March 29, 2018
Non posso dire che Michael Nesmith fosse il mio Monkees preferito, perché non ricordo quale dei quattro lo fosse. Ma, trovandomi tra le mani un suo libro in offerta, ho sentito il dovere di comprarlo.
La storia, scritta nel 1998, è una sorta di viaggio iniziatico, autobiografia, hippy nostalgico, dove le azioni si succedono senza apparente soluzione di continuo, scaraventando il protagonista (ed il lettore) in varie situazioni cliché di una certa narrativa di evasione.
Una misteriosa e mitica figura porta il protagonista sulle tracce di ben due villaggi misteriosi, nascosti dal mondo e raggiungibili solo se scortati da un abitante... o per sbaglio.
Poi abbiamo una mezza setta fondata da truffatori, un cattivo più cattivo a capo di un'organizzazione criminale, illuminazioni sulla via di Damasco e decine di occasioni durante le quali il protagonista può dimostrare di essere abile in qualsiadi cosa si debba fare in quel momento.
Se fosse una fanfiction, avremmo il perfetto Marty Stu, alterego perfetto per l'autore, con il quale condivide il soprannome e alcuni tratti biografici.
Il romanzo in sé si lascia leggere, ma temo che finirà nel dimenticatoio molto rapidamente.
La storia, scritta nel 1998, è una sorta di viaggio iniziatico, autobiografia, hippy nostalgico, dove le azioni si succedono senza apparente soluzione di continuo, scaraventando il protagonista (ed il lettore) in varie situazioni cliché di una certa narrativa di evasione.
Una misteriosa e mitica figura porta il protagonista sulle tracce di ben due villaggi misteriosi, nascosti dal mondo e raggiungibili solo se scortati da un abitante... o per sbaglio.
Poi abbiamo una mezza setta fondata da truffatori, un cattivo più cattivo a capo di un'organizzazione criminale, illuminazioni sulla via di Damasco e decine di occasioni durante le quali il protagonista può dimostrare di essere abile in qualsiadi cosa si debba fare in quel momento.
Se fosse una fanfiction, avremmo il perfetto Marty Stu, alterego perfetto per l'autore, con il quale condivide il soprannome e alcuni tratti biografici.
Il romanzo in sé si lascia leggere, ma temo che finirà nel dimenticatoio molto rapidamente.
October 13, 2023
It's really a pity that I didn't like this more. I'm a fan of Mike Nesmith's solo music and the man can write a nice turn of phrase. Unfortunately I don't think that translates to novel writing ability. It's very clearly a book that was very personal to him (I mean, c'mon, the main character isn't a even thinly veiled as an author insert, he calls himself by name pretty much) but it wasn't as clever as his lyrics tend to be. It honestly made me cringe in some bits, and I never was able to get over that the main character was literally him, down to his past.
I only recommend this to people who are die hard fans of the Monkees/Mike Nesmith, as a chance to peer into the man's psyche...but fair warning I almost ended up hating him by the end of it based on the pretention alone...
I WILL recommend Mike Nesmith's discography for those who are interested in this for the mythos/dismantling of the wild west cowboy thing. Magnetic South, Loose Salute, and Nevada Fighter explore similar themes more successfully imo.
I only recommend this to people who are die hard fans of the Monkees/Mike Nesmith, as a chance to peer into the man's psyche...but fair warning I almost ended up hating him by the end of it based on the pretention alone...
I WILL recommend Mike Nesmith's discography for those who are interested in this for the mythos/dismantling of the wild west cowboy thing. Magnetic South, Loose Salute, and Nevada Fighter explore similar themes more successfully imo.
June 8, 2022
I enjoy Nesmith's music, but this novel was a real struggle to get through. Essentially a thinly-disguised, quasi-mystical self-insert fanfiction, there really isn't much of a payoff to getting through the story. The characters' relationships and motivations are obscure, the writing is bland, the deus ex machinas become increasingly improbable, etc. You get the feeling this is supposed to be read as some sort of a philosophical tale, except that it's hard to tell what the moral lesson is supposed to be, other than everyone should travel to remote New Mexico to meet their own magical mystery woman.
January 12, 2020
This one was a little bit Tom Robbins/Carlos Casteneda/Ancient Aliens-esque. There were some moments that grabbed me....a strange gigantic fortress in the Nevada desert reminded me eerily of the largest private home in Phoenix, which I visited a time or two as a guest in the 1990's, although the denizens of that home were much more benign than the ones encountered in this tale; the notion that music can certainly take you on some pathways that you never expect it to and sometimes leads you to more questions than answers. The fortress made me kind of wonder if he'd been a visitor to the same place at some time, as this is also a book that takes place in the desert, certainly a place where sands shift and a land of mirages.
Quotes from the book that struck me: "True love is a type of mutual esteem, a state of shared values and perceptions wherein one's motives turn away from the self, and its constant effort towards satisfaction, towards another and another's world, selflessly seeking another's well-being and happiness, secure that in the that simple notion rests all joy." (This is where I heard Michael Nesmith's voice as a songwriter the most in the book.)
A funny observation about drivers: "He'll never see us. He's nothing if not completely involved with himself." ~ I didn't know Augie, or Gus, or whatever his name was, so I had no notion of whether that was true about him, but it was definitely something I had noticed about Cadillac drivers.
His description of the archetypal businessman he comes to know better (and not like any better, whatsoever) in the fortress: "Because now I understood Armando, this artless man with his billions, this empty soul looking for a Welach (a secret wonderful and ephemeral native town) to exploit, to enlist into his service of useless ideas, his perverted and shallow sense of natural selection. This man who would exploit the myths of creation for ticket sales, could be confused and lost in an instant...." (And here, I heard the artist Nesmith once again, I'm sure that Armando was more than one person rolled up into this character that sought only money and didn't understand the art that brought the money in even the most rudimentary way).
Quotes from the book that struck me: "True love is a type of mutual esteem, a state of shared values and perceptions wherein one's motives turn away from the self, and its constant effort towards satisfaction, towards another and another's world, selflessly seeking another's well-being and happiness, secure that in the that simple notion rests all joy." (This is where I heard Michael Nesmith's voice as a songwriter the most in the book.)
A funny observation about drivers: "He'll never see us. He's nothing if not completely involved with himself." ~ I didn't know Augie, or Gus, or whatever his name was, so I had no notion of whether that was true about him, but it was definitely something I had noticed about Cadillac drivers.
His description of the archetypal businessman he comes to know better (and not like any better, whatsoever) in the fortress: "Because now I understood Armando, this artless man with his billions, this empty soul looking for a Welach (a secret wonderful and ephemeral native town) to exploit, to enlist into his service of useless ideas, his perverted and shallow sense of natural selection. This man who would exploit the myths of creation for ticket sales, could be confused and lost in an instant...." (And here, I heard the artist Nesmith once again, I'm sure that Armando was more than one person rolled up into this character that sought only money and didn't understand the art that brought the money in even the most rudimentary way).
November 5, 2023
I definitely liked the book. It's a unique enough read. I strongly recommend going in blind, actually. Go read it before you read this review.
I think the main appeal of it for me it that it keeps you guessing about what the "gist" of the book is. It's a hard book to actually describe to someone without just recapping the plot. It starts off as a fun little mystery where you're presented with unique characters who all give conflicting accounts and you're left trying to piece together a cohesive narrative. Then it turns into something more akin to a series of parables with a romance side plot... Then it turns into a suspenseful action piece, complete with eerie UFO cult (?), and then... It just kind of ends.
I definitely liked that it was a hard story to predict. There were always new twists being thrown in. Some of the characters are incredibly witty as well; I can see why Douglas Adams spoke highly of this book.
That being said, the moralizing (there's a lot of it) isn't very nuanced. There's a pretty cut-and-dry message throughout that collective values, simplicity and creative expression are great (who doesn't agree?), while materialism, hedonism and individualism are bad. Setting descriptions are hit-or-miss. You can also tell that Mike is really into aviation because he provides a lot of oddly specific information about flying.
If you like Michael Nesmith it's an interesting little glance into the types of worlds he built in his mind. The folklore and mythology it's imbued with is certainly poetic. Other than that, it makes a fairly decent, but unremarkable, read if you're looking for something to finish in a few sittings.
I think the main appeal of it for me it that it keeps you guessing about what the "gist" of the book is. It's a hard book to actually describe to someone without just recapping the plot. It starts off as a fun little mystery where you're presented with unique characters who all give conflicting accounts and you're left trying to piece together a cohesive narrative. Then it turns into something more akin to a series of parables with a romance side plot... Then it turns into a suspenseful action piece, complete with eerie UFO cult (?), and then... It just kind of ends.
I definitely liked that it was a hard story to predict. There were always new twists being thrown in. Some of the characters are incredibly witty as well; I can see why Douglas Adams spoke highly of this book.
That being said, the moralizing (there's a lot of it) isn't very nuanced. There's a pretty cut-and-dry message throughout that collective values, simplicity and creative expression are great (who doesn't agree?), while materialism, hedonism and individualism are bad. Setting descriptions are hit-or-miss. You can also tell that Mike is really into aviation because he provides a lot of oddly specific information about flying.
If you like Michael Nesmith it's an interesting little glance into the types of worlds he built in his mind. The folklore and mythology it's imbued with is certainly poetic. Other than that, it makes a fairly decent, but unremarkable, read if you're looking for something to finish in a few sittings.
March 1, 2022
I really do love Michael Nesmith’s writing. For the same reason I feel such affection for his songs and their titles that don’t appear in the lyrics, and how all his work is double-feature of reality and personal spiritual thought, his prose is so appealing to me. The audiobook was wonderful and I think I will try to get a print copy for myself.
I admire the free flow of honest ideas and pieces of story that he seems able to pour out. No part of this seemed forced to me, it was extremely extremely earnest. His humor, as strange and unbaked as it can be, really gets me every time. In particular I laughed at the “language lesson” tape (his performance of it on the audio version of the book is very funny) and the word “spamburger”(?) Although I sort of lost the gist of what was going for a few moments, I loved this much more than I could have hoped and my real rating is closer to a 4.5. Good clean fun :•)
I admire the free flow of honest ideas and pieces of story that he seems able to pour out. No part of this seemed forced to me, it was extremely extremely earnest. His humor, as strange and unbaked as it can be, really gets me every time. In particular I laughed at the “language lesson” tape (his performance of it on the audio version of the book is very funny) and the word “spamburger”(?) Although I sort of lost the gist of what was going for a few moments, I loved this much more than I could have hoped and my real rating is closer to a 4.5. Good clean fun :•)
March 14, 2017
I really wasn't sure what I was going to get when I stumbled on this at Half-Priced Books last fall. For one thing, it turned out to be an autographed copy!
I've always been a fan of the Monkees, and of Michael Nesmith's solo music, and comedy projects. Students might recall "Irish Language Learning Lab". From other short pieces of Nez's writing as well as his music I've always known he's a deep thinker, especially on introspective, spiritual issues. "The Long, Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora" went exactly down one of those roads.
The book reminds me most of "The Kin of Ata are Waiting For You" and "Lost Horizon". All three have that "hidden, mystical place that most people just are not ready for" concept at the core. I think I would call this an easy read, that comes across very light-hearted, but goes much deeper. Nez hit the mark for me with this one.
I've always been a fan of the Monkees, and of Michael Nesmith's solo music, and comedy projects. Students might recall "Irish Language Learning Lab". From other short pieces of Nez's writing as well as his music I've always known he's a deep thinker, especially on introspective, spiritual issues. "The Long, Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora" went exactly down one of those roads.
The book reminds me most of "The Kin of Ata are Waiting For You" and "Lost Horizon". All three have that "hidden, mystical place that most people just are not ready for" concept at the core. I think I would call this an easy read, that comes across very light-hearted, but goes much deeper. Nez hit the mark for me with this one.
February 6, 2017
beautiful love story set in a magical land of characters that will change your thinking about life and the purpose of following your heart and dreams. I high recommend this book - I especially love the
the audio book with the soundtrack of so many good times on it available on the authors website.
www.videoranch.com
MC
the audio book with the soundtrack of so many good times on it available on the authors website.
www.videoranch.com
MC
July 8, 2025
This is definitely one I'll have to reread to get a better grasp on. It's a very odd book, but I was expecting that. The writing is incredible, but the plot is a bit confusing. It works. Nez doesn't really understand what's going on, why should we?
June 17, 2020
A very intriguing read. A cross between a travel fiction, a spiritual quest and science fiction. I was totally immersed from start to finish. I couldn’t put it down.
March 9, 2024
I just love Michael Nesmith. I wish he had written more books. Beautiful story, amazing way with words.
November 9, 2024
2 and a half
December 31, 2024
Anyways - and here is a bit of the review that does not include spoilers - I always knew that I would say I liked this book, just because I wanted to feel special and connected with this man whose life resonates with me. I am stubborn and sort of pretentious that way. But having listened to it (I really recommend listening straight from the source - it's special to hear things exactly as he intended, and without the ability to skip ahead a few words on accident and spoil something exciting) I can now say genuinely that I DID like this book and I DID understand it and even if I had no context within the author's own background I would have found it fun, charming, full of endearingly lame bravado, and in some ways (not all - lol) touchingly ahead of its time. There are much, much worse books you could go out and spend time reading :)
July 5, 2025
It's very odd but I lowkey love it
June 11, 2010
I expected something just about this esoteric from Mike Nesmith (yes, THAT Mike Nesmith, of the Monkees), and this did not fail to meet my expectations head on. He chronicles the rather zen journey of a guy only known as "Nez" (which is, duh, "zen" backwards; it is also a possible nickname for Mr. Nesmith himself, which does not surprise me in the least). It is a fascinating journey, but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, just the way a lot of our real-life events do. I have no doubt that Mike did that very purposefully. From a literary standpoint, the book was very well composed and the characters fleshed out just exactly as much as they needed to be and no more. No extraneous information was released. I am looking forward to reading more of his work!
July 15, 2016
So when I heard Mike Nesmith wrote a book I knew it would be my TBR, but then I found out he also read the audiobook and I knew it would be the next book I read. So this book took me through this journey through fantasy then reality then science fiction and then to I don't know what.
At first I thought it was just a random character written, but then I quickly realized that Nesmith was writing about himself so it makes me wonder how real this book is supposed to be.
The best part of the book was when Nesmith describes how he falls off the cliff and into the river. I was actually cringing as I listened to it. I gave it 3/5 stars because there were a lot of confusing parts in it, though I think a lot of them were supposed to be confusing.
At first I thought it was just a random character written, but then I quickly realized that Nesmith was writing about himself so it makes me wonder how real this book is supposed to be.
The best part of the book was when Nesmith describes how he falls off the cliff and into the river. I was actually cringing as I listened to it. I gave it 3/5 stars because there were a lot of confusing parts in it, though I think a lot of them were supposed to be confusing.
March 5, 2008
This is Nesmith's first (only) novel and it's just as strange as you'd imagine it would be. The book evolves like a long daydream. At times the lines between Neftoon Zamora's real-world and fantasy-world are extremely blurry, but the confusion pays off in the end. Word of warning: If read this book stoned you may lose your mind.
January 6, 2016
I of course bought this book offline because my favorite Monkee Michael Nesmith wrote it and I was altogether curious. However upon finishing it I have to say that I am quite surprised and very satisfied. The story is beautifully spun through fact and fiction and is at times mesmerizing. Great read, awesome story.
November 14, 2009
May need to read this one again. Pap Nes tried his hand at writing a novel and came up with his fantasy/autobiography/fictional tale of a mytholgical, sci fi, love story with the protagonist, Nez, searching for truth. Admittedly, it confused the heck out of me when I first read it, so it's worth a trip back to see if I've gotten any smarter.
August 24, 2011
Definitely a favourite of mine - the characters are brilliantly fleshed out but it's the story that is so brilliant. To paraphrase Cars, it moves, rises, falls, curves and twists along the road of the setting. It's the first book I've read for a while that I have not wanted to put down. A love story with a twist to be read over and over, and discover something new every single time.
April 6, 2012
Mike Nesmth of the Monkees has writen a good but not a great novel. The main character tries to find the legendary Neftoon Zamora. The journey seesaws between being metaphysical and an action/adventure/comedy. What could have been a huge mess of a story winds up being quite entertaining and like almost everything he does Mr. Nesmith is always entertaining.
November 21, 2014
It's not that I didn't like this book, but I don't think it's the type of book I would normally read. I mostly read it because Mike Nesmith wrote it. It's very well written. I just don't feel like it took me on a complete journey, or maybe not the one I thought it would. If you like Nez I would recommend reading this book.
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