Angels and Aliens: A Journey West

by Mary Morris

Angels & Aliens is Mary Morris's long-awaited memoir, confirming her status as a master of the genre.

In Angels & Aliens , Mary Morris once again explores her experiences as a woman on the road, this time as a single parent, wandering with her daughter through Southern California and struggling to make it on her own. Posing as a believer, Morris infiltrates New Age groups, flies as an angel through the Crystal Cathedral, and becomes a member of the earth-based unit of the Ashtar command.

As her relationship with her baby's father unravels and she is confronted with personal and financial setbacks, Morris tries to understand how other people cope with their lives, and places these systems of coping withing the broader context of American culture.

Written with humor and hope, this travel memoir is both a life-affirming story of one woman's journey through the emotional terrain of the heart, and a clear-eyed journalist's account of the true nature of California as a state of exodus, home to sun seekers, spiritual believers, and cults. Combining her gift as a story teller, which is apparent in her fiction, and the powerful sense of place she brings to her nonfiction, Morris gives us a traveler's tale for the millennium when there's no place to go but up.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

I was born in Chicago and, though I have lived in New York for many years, my roots are still in the Midwest and many of my stories are set there. As a writer my closest influences are Willa Cather and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I travel as much as I can and travel fuels everything I do. When I travel, I keep extensive journals which are handwritten and include watercolors, collage as well as text. All my writing begins in these journals. I tend to move between fiction and nonfiction. I spent seventeen years working on my last novel, The Jazz Palace. I think I learned a lot writing that book because the next one only took three years., Gateway to the Moon. Gateway which will be out in March 2018 is historical fiction about the secret Jews of New Mexico. I am also working on my fifth travel memoir about my travels alone. This one is about looking for tigers.

Reviews

[Gabriel Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. Such a surprising little gem!! I found this at a thrift shop years ago and picked it up on a whim this week. A charming and moving story about a woman who doesn’t know why she’s doing what she’s doing or what she’s preparing for yet still searches for magic and transcendence and probes the people around her who seem like they’ve figured it out even when their answers are deeply insane. Inspired me to buy two crystals which I’ve been instructed to keep in my left pocket to welcome abundance and transformation

[Kate]

There's something haunting about her writing style in both this book and her memoir about living in Mexico. The style is kind of aloof, removed. At times I can't quite figure out how she feels about what she is writing about--and other times I am drawn in.

I do enjoy reading books about people's views of California--and also about women trying to make their way in the world. Why and how so many powerful, creative women obsess about men is also of interest to me, even though it kind of makes me sad and crazy. (I am not saying I haven't been in that tribe.) I was glad when she finally claimed her power toward the end of the book.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joan Didion meets X-Files

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the writing and the journey but I was so frustrated with her!

[Cat. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather fascinating. About a year the author spent in California on a teaching job that was supposed to be a joint move with her lover. Only, he changed his mind & stayed in New York while she went West, eventually discovering that her job was put together as an enticement for "Jeremy" (not his real name), so no one really wants her there. She gets involved in several spiritual activities to help her figure out why she's depressed, even though she knows. It's very funny at points, and very frustrating at other points when she's being a big baby not to mention obtuse. Anyway, 12 years' distance makes it all easier for her to see.

[Nadine]

I liked this book because I remember being a single Mom with 2 kids and what a struggle it was. I liked the way she described her long distance relationship with her daughter's father and how she finally came to grips with him.