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Buddhaland Brooklyn (2012)

by Richard C. Morais(Favorite Author)

3.62 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1451669224 (ISBN13: 9781451669220)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Scribner

review 1: It's always fun to read a book of extreme contrasts and in this story an introverted Japanese Buddhist priest is assigned to open a temple in Brooklyn, NY. To say he is reluctant to take this assignment is a vast understatement. Nonetheless, he is obedient and tries to fulfill his task. And from that we readers benefit from the humor and wisdom of the situational irony. I was going to be very gentle in my criticism because I thought perhaps his book suffered from some problems in translation till I realized why I read this book in the first place. He is the author of one of my favorite books, now a major motion picture starring Helen Mirren: The Hundred Foot Journey. Thus there is no excuse for his editors' laziness or carelessness or incompetence in the following mis... moretakes which, while they did not detract from the story line, they did distract, and made the author sound unnecessarily silly. I listened to the audio version so I can't quote exact line and verse, but I am close enough to illustrate. . . . .bold boulders lined the river. . . (really? bold, not shy boulders?). . . .my mother's complexion was like rice. . . (how so? hard and dry, or soft and sticky?---did you mean to say the color of rice paper?). . . the snow falling was like an old woman combing her hair with dandruff falling out. . . (oh, pullease---snow is literature's cleansing purifying agent---guess we need some head 'n' shoulders to clean up Brooklyn). . .as I knelt in prayer, birds landed on my knees and thighs. . . .( um, were they under your knees? and perched precariously on your thighs?) . . . the clouds roared across the sky. . . ( those noisy clouds---well, they have to compete with the airplanes, don't they?)
review 2: A very feel-good book about a Japanese Buddhist priest being sent to Brooklyn to start up a new temple. He is naive and sheltered, and underwent a traumatic event in childhood that made him a very emotionally closed-off adult. In Brooklyn, culture clash ensues. Everything in America is strange and different to him (I love looking at America through a foreigner's eyes via literature). But he gradually merges into New York society, and gradually learns to open himself up to meaningful relationships with Americans.One of the most interesting things about this book, to me, is that the author is an American who writes for Forbes magazine, and provides financial advice to wealthy people. How unexpected of a background for someone writing the topic of this book! less

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