Customer Reviews

The Bone Man of Benares: A Lunatic Trip Through Love and the World

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book! It's a fantastic, beautifully-written hilarious poetic journey of one man whose search for manhood, spirituality and love takes him to the far corners of the world most of us only wish we could visit. Tarnoff writes with such color and verve that I felt transported to the cobblestone streets of Sweden, to the plains of Africa, to the perfect insanity of India, to the pristine altitudes of Nepal. Un-put-down-able, compelling, vivid, magical, funny, human. What more can I say? Read it!

This book was an adventure all the way through. Every time that I picked it up, I found myself captured for hours as I devoured this fascinating book. Tarnoff does a magnificent job of transporting the reader with him to experience wondrous adventures in Europe, Africa, and Asia. I loved his picturesque descriptions as well as the poetic style of writing that emerges when he is describing certain experiences. Read this book and be prepared for a journey that will often make you laugh, sometimes make you cry, but in the end will leave you feeling good and triumphant.

I could not put this book down. I initially presumed this was a work of fiction though it seems it actually documents Tarnoff's own travels- extremely evident per the extremely rich detail and intricate nuances that transport you to wherever the author finds himself. I very much believed this book and endeared myself to the author right away, as he is inescapably human and understandably confused by the world. The author has a keen eye for detail and human qualities. Some of the characters in the book were unforgettably hilarious.

I learned a lot from this book about the various places the author traveled and didn't mind the long multi-paged streams of consciousness. I found this to be an honest journey into someone's head, stoned or not. If it was poorly written and irrelevant, that would make the drug portion of it a detriment. I actually felt in this case that the drug experimentation and detailed accounts of different methods of global drug use fit well in the story and were just part of the journey. This is a painfully honest book about a confused human being looking for clarity. I laughed, cried, and contemplated. You can't ask for much more than that.

I very much enjoyed the existential paradoxes Tarnoff struggles with in book as well as his own unintended hypocrisy. His torturous relationship with Annika reminded me in such an unfiltered way of that desperate dysfunction of young relationships between people that haven't figured much out yet. And I very much enjoyed the honesty of how volatile and shifty it was. I fully grasped the author's blind hope and love for Annika and then my own subsequent frustration when he continued to submit to it. Classic.

This is one of my favorite books simply because I believed it and really went on the "trip" the whole time. It isn't a literary classic but who cares? It's a great read, boasts profound moments, is written well, and is hopelessly comical. It's going on my "favorites" shelf.

I spent a while reading this book and I have to say that I felt so many different emotions that I found it hard to put the book down. True love, the ripped heart, the soulmate, the music, the scares, the feeling of being part of something special... It's a book that you should pick up as soon as possible and hopefully a moment of your life will be filled with a rollercoaster of emotions!!

I loved this book! It's a fantastic, beautifully-written hilarious poetic journey of one man whose search for manhood, spirituality and love takes him to the far corners of the world most of us only wish we could visit. Tarnoff writes with such color and verve that I felt transported to the cobblestone streets of Sweden, to the plains of Africa, to the perfect insanity of India, to the pristine altitudes of Nepal. Un-put-down-able, compelling, vivid, magical, funny, human. What more can I say? Read it!

Terry Tarnoff, an acquaintance of mine over many years, noting my Kindle, came over to me at my table at a cafe. "I have a book for you," he said. "Free for you. On Kindle." I hadn't followed his career. Other friends had pushed their writings on me, and I always looked upon giving feedback as a task I'd rather avoid. Not the case with "The Bone Man of Benares." It was absolutely delightful. I'd never been a hippy, nor had I gravitated towards world travel, but Tarnoff's crazy adventures are strung along like beads on his hilarious interior monologue. Really really a good read.

This is an amusing account of Tern Tarnoff's travels around the world in the early 1970s. Interwoven with his travels is the tale of his compicated on-off love affair with Annika, the charming girl he meets in Sweden, and remains enamoured of throughout his subsequent travels. When he isn't indulging in somewhat tiresome stream-of-consciousness ramblings, he describes his adventures in an entertaining way, and the book is often very funny. His time in African is particularly vividly described, and his eventual and startline encounter with the Bone Man of Benares is one of th ehighlights of the book, even though our curiosity as to what the bone man does with his bones remains unsatisfied. Very amusing.

The Bone Man of Benares is pretty much one man's obsession with a specific woman and drugs in the 1970's. This book should be subtitled taking drugs in exotic places. While he can be extremely funny at times, most of the book reads like an over-obsessed childhood crush on drugs. It isn't until the author gets to Africa that you get any indication of the society around him (other than the drug taking that is). All the way to the end of the book you get endless lessons on Bangi, hash-smoking and acid-taking. While I understand this was a major part of the era it seems to be mentioned a little too often and makes you wonder just exactly how much of the other stuff he describes really happened or if it was all just a bad acid trip.