HANK HEALS

A meditation leader turns faith healer in Guy’s sequel to Jake Fades (2007).

In 2008, following the death of Jake, his Zen teacher, Hank Wilder has moved back to his hometown of Durham, North Carolina, and opened a zendo of his own. His classes, however, aren’t well attended. One day, he runs into Julie, an old girlfriend whose breast cancer has just returned after years of remission. Wanting to comfort her, Hank offers—for reasons he can’t explain—to place his hand on the ailing breast, which she allows him to do. Two weeks later, Julie shows up at the zendo with incredible news: “The spot wasn’t there, Hank,” she tells him. “They did an ultrasound and couldn’t find a thing. I think your touch opened things up and I was healed. I want to learn what you know.” Does Hank possess magical healing powers? He’s as shocked as anyone, but after he cures a boy’s limp, his gift seems undeniable. A viral TV spot brings more pilgrims to his zendo, and Hank soon finds himself at the center of a Catholicism-tinged cult of the Virgin Mary. Can he figure out what’s really going on before he completely loses control of the situation? Guy’s prose is incisive and often funny, as when he describes some of Hank’s would-be students: “They had meditated ‘for years,’ they said, but that turned out to mean every now and then over a number of years. They were deeply disappointed to find that all we did was sit there, figured there had to be something more.” Still, despite the premise, the book isn’t a satire, as one might expect. Hank, and the author, clearly take Zen—and spiritualism in general—quite seriously, and the book hews as closely to realism as its unlikely plot developments will allow. Hank can be a frustrating character at times, but his journey is a rich one. The plot eventually, and unexpectedly, veers away from Durham, and the ending is a satisfying one.

An offbeat and sincere novel of a man’s mysterious guruship.