I remember "TFIA" being recommended to me, and eventually reading it without much enthusiasm. I wanted to like it ~ especially because I was living in Bolinas at the time ~ but it left me kinda cold.

I didn't know that Catholicism was part of RB's troubled life. As a "fallen-away Catholic" myself (I personally prefer the phrase "gotten-away"), I might have been able to read his stuff with a bit more sympathy.