Customer Reviews

Enlightenment for Idiots: A Novel

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book accidentally at my local library, loved it, and recommended it to students in meditation classes that I teach. As the main character travels through India, she encounters virtually every spiritual tradition taught there, from hot yoga, to Vipassana Buddhism, tantric sexuality and complete renunciation. What I really love about the book is that it offers a real education on all of these traditions in an easy to read context. It actually reads like your standard chick-lit summer fare, but in the end, the concepts it is covering are more than a little sophisticated. It affectionately parodies many of the most famous (or infamous) contemporary spiritual teachers, such as Amma, Sai Baba, and Gangaji, and some of their more over-the-top devotees. It manages to do this in a way that doesn't diminish these teachers' spiritual lessons, but does pose important questions about what true faith and spiritual inquiry is. If you are interested in yoga, meditation, or all things India, check it out.

Enlightenment for Idiots by Anne Cushman follows Amanda, a twenty-nine year old wanna-be yoga instructor who pays the bills by writing instruction manuals for the "For Idiots" series of books (as in Computers for Idiots, etc.). Like many twenty-somethings, Amanda is struggling with the realization that her life doesn't look or feel anything like she thought it would back when she was younger. She lives in an apartment filled with beat-up furniture; has eccentric hippie roommates; is struggling to make ends meet; and she left her "perfect on paper" fiancé for a rootless photographer named Matt who makes her heart race but after three years says that he doesn't believe in labels like "girlfriend".

After Amanda and Matt decide to take a break from their tumultuous relationship, Amanda accepts an assignment in India where she is supposed to find enlightenment and write about it in a book called Enlightenment for Idiots. Amanda discovers more than spirituality and enlightenment in India and her life is forever changed by one monumental and unexpected discovery (which I won't reveal so as to not spoil the book).

Cushman's descriptions of India are so expressive and vivid that I could almost taste the curry, see the Ganges, and smell the crowded streets of New Delhi. Cushman does a superb job of capturing the essence of India and of those who travel there to find spirituality or whatever it is they are looking for. She is masterful at capturing and conveying both the good and the bad aspects of this complicated country and it's people - both foreign and native.

Cushman also does an exceptional job of developing her characters. This might be due in part to the fact that this novel is most likely a fictional autobiography (Cushman spent time in India writing a guide very similar to the fictional Enlightenment for Idiots). Amanda is a sympathetic and relatable figure to whom most twenty-somethings will be able to identify with. Cushman's descriptions of Amanda's relationship and travels through India with her friend Devi Das are touching, entertaining and humorous; as is her portrayal of Amanda's relationship with her mother-hen-like friend, Lisa.

My only criticism of this book is that it is a bit too long. Cushman could have pared down the book by about 100 pages. I got the impression that Cushman was so moved by her own real-life travels in India that she didn't want to leave anything out in her fictional re-telling of her adventure.

Overall, Enlightenment for Idiots is a well-written and entertaining book which highlights the joys of finding your own path and playing the hand you're dealt with grace and acceptance that nothing is or will be perfect or the way you thought it would be. Instead of finding enlightenment, Amanda finds her true self and knowledge that acceptance of yourself and the way things are is the only true way to find nirvana.

I loved this book and am sharing it with all my friends, whether Yoga lovers or couch potatoes like me. It has wit and whimsy, combined with insights on life and love, and is a real page turner to boot. My twenty something daughter just read it cover to cover on a long distance flight and is now giving it to her friend as a birthday present. Better written than the non-fiction Eat, Pray, Love (which was loaded with grammatical errors!), it manages to be both escapist and thought provoking. Kudos to this first-time novelist.

In Amanda's journey, I saw a lot of my own short year's journey into yoga. There was in all of Anne Cushman's characters a kind of manic searching as they tried to experience everything about yoga right now. The story worked for me like a total immersion in the yoga culture: wanting to understand the philosophy, wanting to perfect your asanas, dreaming about visiting India, looking for THE guru. All the characters felt real to me, and I enjoyed following their growth from start to finish. I will miss them and hope that Ms. Cushman brings them back in another novel.

I loved this book.

Another book covered in less than 24 hours! It was definitely a page-turner.

I ended up underlining and sticky noting on several pages. There were a couple of powerful passages.

But in summary, I thought Ms. Cushman through her main character, Amanda, was trying to show the pain in identifying with the past and in trying to rush ahead to the future. You miss out on the important present moment. It is in the present moment where real life happens. (p 124 - "I wanted to run screaming out of the house and into my future... So why now - riding a train through India, inhabiting the future that was my fantasy then - was I suddenly filled with nostalgia?")

Amanda tears all over India to research her book and in search of the best teachers so that she can find enlightenment. But she'll only find enlightenment within the present moment in stillness. Her best teacher comes along in the birth of her baby, who will keep her firmly rooted in the present moment.

Ms. Cushman did a fantastic and sometimes realistic, sometimes fantastical job with this novel. It was fun and funny, and yes, insightful too. As I mentioned earlier, it reminded me of the Bridget Jones books through its humor, and because of the lead going off to research her work and getting in a bit over her head.

I will recommend this book to friends.

"Enlightenment for Idiots' is my favorite novel of 2008. Much of it made me smile but the denouement was very moving. For those of us with a passion for yoga or for seeking alternative spaces; this is a must read. The characters were unique and the plot carried one along; wanting to know how it would all turn out. Initially, I was suspicious that the novel would be way too lite. I was pleasantly surprised and then some. The author, Anne Cushman, is well known to many of my friends who read Yoga Journal, Tricycle, etc. I was not familiar with her work but now I am.

Here's a well written book, with a well-thought-out female character as the lead. This is definately the book to read if you're a woman who's dabbled in yoga or thought about an alternative spirtual journey. The book felt like a light-hearted, easy read with lots of humor, but it leaves you with some deep thoughts.

Honestly, after a crazy day of work, this was a nice respite.

This enjoyable yogic chick-lit novel has three parts - the Pre-India, India and Post-India sections. The best part, and the bulk of the story, lies in protagonist's India travels...in all their poverty-stricken, rotten-corpse-floating-in-the-Ganges glory.

Amanda, a part-time yoga instructor/part time guidebook author, is sent by her dragon-lady publisher to India in search of enlightenment. She ultimately finds the problem with packaging enlightenment into a "Dummies" book is that spiritual paths don't run on deadlines. :)

Amanda jumps both feet first into India, fortunately befriended by an ex-pat, barefoot Sadhu (renunciate spiritual seeker). They travel across the Sub-Continent together, sleeping under mosquito netting on questionable mattresses, poling up the filthy Ganges and watching cows eat garbage in the streets. There's an odd mix of the holy and the grotesque. The author's voice seems genuine; she transports us with her to an honest view of India.

Amanda's comic-desperate journey takes her from one promising enlightenment guru to the next. Each spiritual master takes a different tack on "The TRUTH"...hard core yoga, loss of individuality (who is the *you* who is asking about your truth?), strict ashram schedules and even ashrams with no leader (where the main activity, at least for Amanda, is sleeping in). Amanda finally backpacks in to an ascetic in a mountain cave who might actually possess the truth...and is suddenly, painfully sent home.

I found the India segment fascinating - I could have traveled with Amanda and Devi Das stumbling for enlightenment for years. Following her back to the states was a lot less fun.

The denouement was a bit of a let-down after all the colorful traveling and exotic misadventures. Back home, I sensed Amanda missed the sacred chaos and strange purity of her quest. I missed it too.

Amanda DID find what she was looking for, in a sense, and so did her publisher. And it's really all we can hope for ourselves. :)

Loved it! I had to keep skipping ahead to find out what happened (a bad habit of mine). Then I had to go back and read the whole thing again to get the parts I missed. Very, very funny, a great read.

This is a wonderful, wonderful, hilarious ,and insightful book a la Annie Lamott, and Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love).
An intelligent, great summer read with lots of adventure, down-to-earth humor, humility, nitty-gritty relationship challenges, all within the tale of a yoga teacher's jaunt to India to find "enlightenment".
I picked it up and couldn't put it down.