An engaging tale about the meditative life whose hip-hop stylings make the enlightenment lighthearted.
A despondent rapper gets his groove back with the help of an Indian guru in this debut novel–cum–self-help guide.
A-Luv, an American rap superstar and son of Indian immigrants, enjoys a Malibu, California, mansion along with “an iced-out Rolex, massive diamonds in his ears, and countless rings and bracelets.” But his bling-obsessed ethos has saddled him with depression, loneliness, drug addiction, and a creative drought. His agent steers him to the Indian town of Laxman Jhula, by the holy River Ganges in the Himalayan foothills, and to Guddu, a jeweler and spiritual leader of a yoga retreat center. Guddu has an “inner glow that feels pure” and a thunderous laugh—“AH ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!”—that echoes through the book. A-Luv agrees to learn about his “high vibe lifestyle,” based on Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Central to the creed is a mystic metaphysics, which maintains that “everyone is made of energy, which means we’re all the same inside, and connected,” and advocates the quieting of the egoistic, ever distracted “monkey mind” through the cultivation of the soul’s awareness by meditation. Guddu’s fetching assistant, Nikki, puts A-Luv through meditative exercises, like staring at a candle flame. Soon, his awareness and powers of concentration burgeon along with his attraction to Nikki. A dangerous whitewater rafting trip down the Ganges with Guddu teaches A-Luv more lessons on the “Five Fingers of Life,” a doctrine that emphasizes being present in the moment, accepting and dealing with the world even when it’s capsizing your raft, and treating life as a flow of playfulness and creativity. Seth, an entrepreneur and music producer, conveys the warmhearted book’s sometimes-esoteric Eastern wisdom in a down-to-earth way. The mechanics of meditation are illustrated in a straightforward fashion (“Focus on the rhythm and the sensations of your breathing. The warmth of the air, the sensations in your nose”). And the basic insights—focus, avoid neurotic rumination, take things as they come—are couched in pragmatic Western tones (“You can’t eliminate head trash without changing your beliefs”). The author’s prose is a bit didactic, but A-Luv’s common touch—“Almost every person I admire has meditation as a common denominator….I was like yo, maybe this is for real”—keeps things reasonably fresh.
An engaging tale about the meditative life whose hip-hop stylings make the enlightenment lighthearted.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0553-4
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Flow Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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