In his ambitious debut novel, Pautassi uses science, faith and romance as vehicles to explore the deeper mysteries of the universe.
Ruben Miller isn’t your average college student. He’s at the top of his class, and his IQ is “sky high,” but he’s been behaving strangely; Ruben’s been staring at the river all day, every day, fixated on the salmon running upstream. At night, he dreams of professors appearing within geometric shapes and monks telling him that he can be one with the cosmos. When he meets Monique Laramie, they have an instant, uncanny connection, one whose purpose becomes clearer as the story unfolds. Monique introduces Ruben to a book called Parapsychology by a certain Dr. Martin; together, they start to realize that they are both experiencing extrasensory perceptions. In Portland, Ruben seeks out Dr. Martin, who he learns is teaching a class of psychics—people who, along with Ruben and Monique, realize their potential to explore the universe. Author Pautassi clearly has an expansive mind. In this intriguing book, the writing is often elegant, and the ideas explored are both unique and profound. Yet the drama could have been more fully thought-out. Often, the narrative pleasures take a back seat to intellectual discursions as the considerations of philosophy and theology, rich though they may be, overshadow the story. Not that the narrative is devoid of conflict; rather, the problems characters must face are too often easily resolved. Ruben’s psychic abilities, for example, could have spurred conflict, but they seem to solve every problem rather than create new ones. When potentially interesting conflicts do arise, they are quickly dismissed: “For a second Ruben wasn’t at all happy that Bob had read his mind. Then he quickly got over it.” Much of the action, especially in the first half, takes place in symbolic dreamscapes, which, while providing plenty of opportunity for intelligent discourse, are so nonsensical that they cause the narrative momentum to stall. The exploration of the paranormal is fascinating and original. One just wishes that more human problems—the paradoxes of desire, the difficulties of communication—had been given equal weight.
A smart novel—maybe too smart for its own good.
Pub Date: June 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1484942857
Page Count: 158
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 24, 2014
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
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
