Lunch with Buddha

I am notorious for my cynicism. Show me a book that carries an "upbeat" message, and I'll show you a new way to light my wood stove. It's not just the soupiness or the upbeatitude of the message that bothers me, either. After all, we all need our fantasies. Rather it is the implicit arrogance in the proselytism, the smug certainties, and the lack of any sense of irony or humor endemic to this genre.

I love LUNCH WITH BUDDHA,optimism and all, because it lacks all the flaws of the genre I have just described. It is a very funny book, especially in the richness of its characterizations. It is suitably ironic because none of the major characters, not even the great teacher himself, takes himself or herself too seriously. It is a moving book because the problem it pivots on will belong to half of all people in love, sooner or later. It is a gripping book in the depth of the emotional morass from which Otto, the protagonist, tries so hard to remove himself. It is a brave and honorable book because it takes phonies and bigots severely to task, and even raps the knuckles of cynics like me.

Merullo is a skillful writer with a special talent for plot and character. If he wrote more about sex, he would sell more copies, but he is the kind of author who has to be completely comfortable with what he produces. He writes to satisfy his own standards, to bring enjoyment and knowledge to his readers, and not just to sell copies. He is totally authentic, as honest a writer as one can imagine.

In this novel , which is "spiritual" in both the French and English senses of that world, he recognizes that as repulsive as organized religions might appear to folks like me, that revulsion cannot negate the deep need for a spiritual life in each of us. Hard-wired for wonder, like it or not, even the most rational of us wants to pass through some wardrobe door into a world that doesn't make any sense but does so in a way that is holds some grace, even some beauty.

For me, Dostoyevsky offers that kind of experience. You need not be a Christian to accept his sense of true goodness. I feel the same way about Blaise Pascal,that most poetic of mathematicians and most touching of Christian apologists.

Merullo is less specific than either of these. He has no doctrine. No Christian, neither is he anything else easily defined. By the end of this book, however, with all its rollicking action and brilliantly-drawn characters, with all its gentle satire and vivid portraits of the West, I enjoyed a kind of relief, a kind of spiritual easing, that I have not felt in decades.

To tell the truth, that feeling didn't last. But that might be more my fault than the fault of this fine new novel.

So often one reads a novel to get lost for a short time, forget about their problems and let their mind find a respite from the daily grind. Lunch With Budha and its characters take the reader to all those places, however when the reading is done, the story continues. This is what separates Lunch from other novels. LwB is the type of book that entertains you, relaxes you, but then gently keeps the mind's motor running thinking about your own life, its ups and downs, how one deals with family,good and bad..
Every bit as entertaining as Breakfast, this road trip with Otto and Rinpoche take the reader to some of the countries best landmarks and make you feel like you are there with them, flying down a water slide, feeling a bathing suit wedgie coming on!
Roland has continued the road trip with Otto and Rinpoche, and somehow made you feel like you we're in the back seat of the pick up or seated at the dinner table with them, just enjoying the conversation,and company.

Killing off his wife was too much.
It didn’t need that jolt.
Ross and Linda