People, Apr. 18, 1977

"There was a Master come unto the earth, born in the holy land of Indiana, raised in the mystical hills east of Fort Wayne." So begins Illusions, the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (Delacorte Press; $5.95), by the man who gave the world Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Richard Bach's latest whimsy is about an automobile mechanic named Donald Shimoda who barnstorms around the Midwest and preaches homilies. An old barnstormer himself, Bach used to dream of meeting just such a man to answer his questions like: "Why are we living?" Responding to his own...

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