Savage Pilgrims

A journey through New Mexico charting the odyssey of a young man chasing his dreams and fleeing his demons.

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Abandoned by a girlfriend who eloped to New Mexico, and inspired by reading the works of D.H. Lawrence, Henry Shukman was determined that he would visit the state himself one day. It was to be some years before he realized his ambition, and when he finally did go he found a place very different to his expectations. Though it is changing fast, New Mexico still has some of the characteristics of the old frontier, attracting dreamers, visionaries and oddballs who have chosen to escape the confinements of the cities, to uncover the spirit of the desert and the Indians, or to settle into the hybrid culture. For Shukman, New Mexico was to prove a series of magical places and bizarre encounters. Chance meetings brought him into contact with - among others - a flying priest, amiable cowboys and lonesome cowgirls, pueblo-dwelling artists and a monster fish. This book is the story of a young man chasing his dreams and fleeing his demons.