Any controversy is probably because a lot of burners are very sensitive about someone making money off the event because of the whole decommodification ideal. Some are rather umm... zealous about it. That and there are a good number of people on the BM tribe who will fight about any damn thing. I used to read it around event time if I was going that year, but stopped because of all the bickering. I did go and read one thread on it though, and it seemed only a small portion of people reacted negatively, most were very positive.

I'll check it out... doesn't seem like my kind of book and I don't attend burning man religiously due to living 2000 miles away, but reading and my involvement in the local burner community are my only actual hobbies. Thanks for the tip.

There is also another ficitional novel set at BM that was mentioned on the BM tribe thread. Plus some good non-fiction (This is Burning Man) if you are interested in further reading.