Scattershot analyses of Thai societal characteristics don’t support this murky treatise.
A Thai national, Dhiravegin explores the many factors that shape identities in his earnest debut.
As the subtitle suggests, Dhiravegin’s book sets out with a seemingly straightforward agenda: to consider how Asian culture and other parameters, including marital status, religion, and nationality, might mold character. For example, in a discussion about the role of provincial identities, he notes how Thai northeasterners face silent ridicule in the cities, which could lead them to hide their background. He also discusses how Thai artists are perceived. Painters and sculptors, Dhiravegin points out, are often labeled “sinlapin sigh hang,” which translates to “artists who have dried intestines,” a tongue-in-check jab at their poverty. Additional material, including an endless catalog of world festivals, seems randomly included. The net result is a work that brims with factoids but doesn’t quite meet the goal set in its title. Stilted writing doesn’t improve the effort: “I would like to tell you about how I acquired an understanding of the subject which has allowed me to present to you some good material that is in the form of this book.” Dhiravegin occasionally references research papers to give the material more heft, but the results are often vague. When he does offer more specificity—criticizing Thai soap operas for selecting only handsome leads, for example—he quickly dulls the impact of such statements by apologizing for his stance. The parts of the book that shed light on Thai society are intriguing and informative. The evolving role of the country’s women, as they have tried to move from being “the hind legs of an elephant” to demanding that their individuality be recognized, is a particularly good example. In the end, although the book promises to “better our daily lives” and “increase happiness overall,” that goal is lost in a confused assemblage of details.
Scattershot analyses of Thai societal characteristics don’t support this murky treatise.Pub Date: July 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5123-0009-3
Page Count: 168
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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