Total Page : 256
Publisher : Harper
Publication Date : 2010 02 01
>> Honesty and the search for truth in suburban Connecticut
Dani Shapiro is a magician with the English language She has an uncanny ability to perfectly articulate universal human feelings and experience In this memoir she recounts her mid life search for meaning and spiritual truth in her suburban writer s life Her personal family history was built upon a foundation of religion and unhappiness She had a complicated relationship with each of her parents The best part of the experience of reading this memoir is the way that Shapiro connects with the reader from the depths of her introspection
>> What a drip
I finally couldn t read another word of this book after the author declined a travel magazine s assignment to India to write about yoga which seems to be the author s main spiritual practice She couldn t go because on the spot at the luncheon meeting she decided her place was at home where he spiritual work is In reality she is too frightened of life as if her husband and son would evaporate if she left them for two weeks Why I read this far was to try and learn more about orthodox Judaism a tradition in which the author grew up and into which goyim rarely get a glimpse As well I was totally intrigued by the author s angry volatile frustrated mother She is the real protagonist of this book whose story I found myself truly wanting to know more about As for her daughter Dani the author what a bore Dani who has the outwardly idyllic life her mother didn t refuses to be happy even though her son beat a rare infant seizure disorder that affects 7 in 1 000 000 000 children 85 of whom never recover and have severe developmental problems I remember this because the author harps on it quite a bit It s as if Dani has survivor s guilt which she probably does but it is very tiring dull and displays itself as a yawning lack of ingratitude Alas the author never gets at either the cause of her mother s un fulfillment or the reason a disproportionate number of Jews turn to Buddhism affectionately called Bu Jews but far be it from this book to include that tid bit or any sense of levity or fun The events of 9/11 also loom large in the book at which time the author and her family were living in New York City Soon after author husband and child fled to the country in Connecticut I believe some of the author s search for life s meaning is impeded by her failure to open herself to the truth about this event and face the fear that our government engendered as a result in its pursuit of hegemony in the Middle East Nonetheless What saves the book and also makes it so irritating is the author s cut and run style of writing Just when I was alternately warming up to the subject matter her mother her father Aunt Shirley the author cuts to some other snippet This literary trick also worked in the opposite direction when I was growing bored about to give up on the tripe she was writing about I guess in the end the author is not someone I would want to hang out with She is so self absorbed that she seems to lack a sense of humor or to have any distance or detachment from her melancholy emotions Forget the meditation and retreats and just drop the false beliefs and negative emotions Dani They aren t true Otherwise there s no air in this book to breathe The author is suffocating which her son must know all too well I plan to skim not buy one of her novels to see if she can actually write because any ability she might have is not on display here I mean come on half a page of dictionary entries As I say unlike Elizabeth Gilbert I would not want to be stuck in an elevator with this author
>> A little piece of peace and grace
This novel is for those of us searching for the profound and the simple in life answers to questions that haunt us touch us take our breath away There are no easy answers but Dani Shapiro delves into herself and the world to find meaning and peace A book to be read more than once a book to covet to share and mark up with post its and notes A work of remarkable strength and insight
