The NYTimes listed it in the top 100 books of 2005. Almost all the other reviews seem to hate it. I think it's great. This is the overall feeling I was left with:
Mission to America is a heady and tangible exposure to the cruz between the obsolete old and the trashy new. The author, Walter Kirn, who also wrote Thumbsucker, seems to sense our civilization teetering on a precipice of excess, about to spill over, lost forever in the shallow, spinning depths below.
And he effectively shares this feeling with his readers.
I'm left knowing that New Ageism and esotheric leanings are wishy-washy blather just as a world of aesteticism and agnostics is empty and material. Furthermore, attempting to find answers or help others will just suck you dry.
According to the ending, it seems that John Lennon (perhaps one man who found the middle-ground in those extremes) was right all along: 'all you need is love.'