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Michael Merschel: Michael Merschel is The Dallas Morning News books editor. June 2009
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If you're still looking for great beach reads (or just great "curled up in a chair, in front of a fan, clutching a lemonade" reads), consider Anne Cushman's Enlightenment for Idiots and/or Megan Chance's The Spiritualist. Ms. Cushman's beautifully written, remarkably assured debut novel Enlightenment for Idiots (Shaye Areheart Books, $24) follows Amanda, a young wanna-be yoga teacher who gets sent to India to write a guide book to finding the titular "enlightenment." But at every "peace center" -- ashram, Buddhist temple, yoga/spa -- she visits, things go horribly, hilariously awry, from ripped knee cartilage to verboten guru love. Amanda's biggest hurdle, literally and physically, comes when she discovers she's pregnant and must choose: enlightenment? motherhood? are both possible? The author, a contributing editor to Yoga Journal and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, comes at her subject with both an insider's knowledge and a divinely warped sense of humor. She actually took just such a trip herself, which resulted in From Here to Nirvana: The Yoga Journal Guide to Spiritual India, which came out in 1999. A small excerpt from Enlightenment: Honestly, what woman hasn't had that dream? For something completely different, spooky and atmospheric and just the thing to send delightful shivers down your sweaty spine, look up Ms. Chance's The Spiritualist, a trade paperback original (Three Rivers Press, $14.95). The author, who got her start as a romance novelist, knows how to ratchet up suspense of both the murderous and erotic sorts. This is a more literary novel, but it retains some of the best elements of romantic suspense; it reminded me of the wonderful Gothic romances by Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart I read when I was in my 20s. Evie Atherton has married well, taking her place among the Knickerbocker society of 1850s Manhattan. But when her husband, Peter, is found murdered shortly after attending a séance conducted by medium Michel Jourdain, Evie's life goes seriously off the rails. The Athertons disinherit her and accuse her of Peter's murder. As Evie investigates in an effort to save herself from the hangman's rope, she's helped by Peter's law-firm partner and an elderly society matron who's fallen in thrall to Jourdain. She finds herself hopelessly drawn into Jourdain's otherworldy endeavors, and fights a disturbing attraction to the medium himself. The séances and dream-visits from spirits, including a distraught Peter and a vindictive former lover of Jourdain's, seem all too genuine, but Evie remains suspicious ... Is it real? Is it 18th-century Memorex, some form of trickery? Evie is a thoroughly winning heroine, likeable despite her considerable flaws, and Ms. Chance brings mid-19th-century Manhattan to grim life. This book won't make you long to have been part of Knickerbocker society ... but it will probably have you wondering about your dreams and who's populating them ... E-mail entry: |
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Don't forget my real-life version of "Enlightenment for Idiots": The 99th Monkey: A Spiritual Journalist's Misadventures with Gurus, Messiahs, Sex, Psychedelics and Other Consciousness-Raising Adventures.
You can read the Prologue here to get the idea:
http://www.the99thmonkey.com
Thanks!
Best,
Eliezer Sobel
Joy, I am glad you enjoyed "Enlightenment for Idiots." My favorite novel of the year. Devi Das was one of the more unusual characters in literature I've encountered for some time. Primarily, I just loved the spiritual and material journey that our heroine chose to take.