Hunters and Gatherers — Francine Prose

Hunters and Gatherers, Francine Prose's withering look at the New Age, is a novel about men and women, power and friendship, sex and competition, and who does what to whom.

Reeling from the shock of a failed romance, Martha, a fact checker at a chic fashion magazine, falls in with a group of New Age feminist goddess worshippers. She follows the group and their accident-prone leader, Isis Moonwagon, from the upscale beaches of Fire Island to the inhospitable Arizona desert, where a Native American healer bullies them through the punitive rituals of the sweat lodge and the vision quest. But as petty tensions and major crises escalate out of control, the women's longing to return to the "caring nurturant" ways of primitive hunters and gatherers shatters under the pressures of a more predatory reality.