Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence [Hardcover]

David Guy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2007

Jake is a Zen master and expert bicycle repairman who fixes flats and teaches meditation out of a shop in Bar Harbor, Maine. Hank is his long-time student. The aging Jake hopes that Hank will take over teaching for him. But the commitment-phobic Hank doesn’t feel up to the job, and Jake is beginning to exhibit behavior that looks suspiciously like Alzheimer’s disease. Is a guy with as many “issues” as Hank even capable of being a Zen teacher? And are those paradoxical things Jake keeps doing some kind of koan-like wisdom . . . or just dementia?

These and other hard questions confront Hank, Jake, and the colorful cast of characters they meet during a week-long trip to the funky neighborhood of Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As they trek back and forth from bar to restaurant to YMCA to Zen Center to doughnut shop, answers arise—in the usual unexpected ways.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An aging Zen master and bicycle repairman confronts his mortality and looks for a successor in this dharma-heavy novel by longtime Zen practitioner Guy (The Autobiography of My Body). Narrator Hank, in his mid-50s, accompanies Jake, his teacher of 22 years, on a weeklong trip to Cambridge, Mass., where Jake is scheduled to lead a retreat. Hank, though aware that 78-year-old Jake's beginning to slip mentally, is surprised when Jake starts talking about leaving a new Buddhist teaching center to him. Hank balks, thinking he isn't capable of filling Jake's spiritual shoes. As the pair tour the city's cheap restaurants and meet with Madeline (who is overseeing the conversion of an old house into the new Buddhist center) and a host of locals, Jake keeps the pressure on reluctant Hank. Though not much actually happens beyond talking and eating, Guy conveys, through Hank's koanlike interior commentary and Jake's dialogue, the subtleties of Zen practice. Readers into the dharma will find this novel worthwhile. (Apr. 10)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Septuagenarian Jake teaches Zen Buddhism and repairs bicycles in Bar Harbor, Maine. Middle-aged Hank is his devoted student. When Jake begins displaying early signs of Alzheimer's, he asks Hank to take over his teaching duties. But Hank, who has practiced meditation for 20 years, feels ill-equipped to replace the wise, genial man who has helped him make sense of his life. During a weeklong trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jake and Hank ponder the future as they indulge in hearty breakfasts at the Golden Donut (a beloved Cambridge greasy spoon that closed in the late 1990s), knock back beers at Charlie's Tap (also a real--and still thriving--place), and meet with Jake's benefactor, Madeleine, to discuss plans for creating a state-of-the-art retreat center. Time is ticking for Jake, who is lucid one moment, lost in a fog the next. Can a hesitant Hank transcend his fears and hone koans worthy of his soulful mentor? Longtime Buddhist practitioner Guy (Autobiography of My Body, 1985) explores the Zen zone in this low-key tale of meditation, mentoring, and mouth-watering baked goods. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Trumpeter; First Edition edition (April 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590304330
• ISBN-13: 978-1590304334
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,472,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A shining example of possibilities of Buddhist fiction, June 13, 2007

By 

Sean Hoade (Las Vegas, Nevada USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence (Hardcover)

It's appropriate that "Jake Fades" is about people in the Zen world. Zen takes the impossible and makes it into something that looks easy... until you try it. In the same way, David Guy takes the story of aging, illness, and death and writes his novel in such an easygoing, non-mannered way that it looks like anyone could do it... and since I'm a writer, I can tell you -- it isn't that easy! Guy has provided us with a stirring, funny, canny, emotional novel that features characters as real as in any book I've read. Jake is unforgettable, but so are Hank, Jess, Josh, even Madeline. I am a big fan of Buddhist fiction, from Kate Wheeler to Keith Kachtick, and this is another prime example of a story that is steeped in Buddhism, but is a perfect treat for anyone of any religion who likes to read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Zen "Tuesday With Morrie", Sadly., November 24, 2007

By 

R. Russeth (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence (Hardcover)

The book begins with an interesting premise - an improbable zen master helps a troubled Dad and son to begin to come together again on a short summer vacation in Maine, starts downhill as Dad thereafter decides to move to Maine and become a student of the aforesaid zen master, and then ends with the trite and improbable rediscovery of the zen master's child. Can you guess who just happens to want to study zen...hmmm, right? Every zen cliche is here under one roof. Start with the cute and eccentric but insightful old zen master who, in this incarnation, repairs bicycles. He can talk to the common people! See their real selves! He's funny and compassionatae! He's a wise fool! He can predict the time of his death! I respect the folks who gave this five stars, but in my estimation this is a seriously flawed book that offers little in the way of insight, instruction or entertainment. For all three, spend your money on "Thank You and OK!: An American Zen Failure in Japan" by David Chadwick.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are You Free for Dinner Hank?, May 16, 2007

By 

BeJae Fleming (Ames, IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence (Hardcover)

Hank, the narrator of David Guy's Jake Fades, is a fabulously flawed, funny, smart, no-account, aimless seeker who tells us the story of our lives: How do we know that we know what we know? I wish Hank lived in my town. I'd buy him a beer, invite him to dinner, see if I could get him to stick around. Hank's story is enough to make a cynical atheist want to learn to meditate ... Well, almost.