Review
"
The Bone Man of Benares calls to the reader like a train-whistle moaning in the distance. Read this book for the literary rock and roll ride of your life."
- Phil Cousineau, author of
The Art of Pilgrimage"I laughed (rollicked) my way through. Terry Tarnoff is one of the funniest writers I've ever read, maybe because so much serious depth underlies the humor." - Gerald Nicosia, author of
Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac"It is obvious from the first pages that Tarnoff not only has a prodigious storytelling talent but also literary flair and sensitivity. Riveting and emotionally charged, with moments of black humour."- Adventure Travel (UK)
"It's a top read... a brilliant account of a foolhardy young American's travels in the Seventies."- Front (UK)"A truly great travel book where the life of the traveller is centre stage and the experiences along the way are the constantly changing backdrop."- The Sydney Morning Herald"Sure to arouse envy in those, now gray, who neither tripped at home nor took the disorienting trip to the Orient: a facile, vivid, novelistic yarn."
- Kirkus Reviews (April 15, 2004)
"The Bone Man of Benares is the kind of sweeping, atmospheric epic they just don't make any more. Terry Tarnoff renders this engaging young-man-on-the-road saga with the heightened élan of a Bangi-abusing Paul Theroux or hippied-out E. M. Forster. In the grand tradition, The Bone Man of Benares stands out as the best kind of contempo literary globe-trotting. It does what a great novel should do - leave you feeling like you've been there."
- Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight
"Terry Tarnoff is a writer whose every word, like a great blues master's instrumental solos, pulls you into his world. The Bone Man of Benares is the extraordinary real life saga of a modern day harmonica-playing Don Quixote, telling us his story with irresistible gusto and élan. Tarnoff makes you feel at home as you ride by his side on his global tour, sharing one incredible adventure after another. The trials and tribulations of romance and self-discovery, all set in exotic locales, make this adventure tale alternately engrossing, touching and hilarious.
From the very first page until the last, it is nearly impossible to put the book down, and even more enjoyable to reread the second time."
-David Amram, author of Off Beat: Collaborating with Jack Kerouac
"Terry Tarnoff's book, The Bone Man of Benares, calls to the reader like a train-whistle moaning in the distance. Written with rhythm and blues, it's the picaresque tale of a '60s expatriate looking for adventure all over the globe. But underneath the exotica is something even more compelling, the voice of a bona fide soul singer, a latter-day pilgrim, seeking the spiritual meaning of the road. Read this book for the literary rock and roll ride of your life."
- Phil Cousineau, author of The Art of Pilgrimage and The Book of Roads
"For those who lived through the several-years-long Summer of Love, Terry Tarnoff's The Bone Man of Benares will provide satisfying doses of wincing nostalgia. For those who didn't, here is an entertaining manual of what they missed."
-Herbert Gold, author of Bohemia: Digging the Roots of Cool
"Sure to arouse envy in those, now gray, who neither tripped at home nor took the disorienting trip to the Orient: a facile, vivid, novelistic yarn."
--KIRKUS REVIEWS (April 15, 2004)
About the Author
In 1971 fed up with the political turmoil and general culture of America, Terry Tarnoff packed his sixteen harmonicas and headed on an eight year journey that would take him around the world. Now living in San Francisco, Terry works as a screen writer.
