It is the week before a local election in Palm Springs. Incumbent, Randall Duke, is dodging scandal while courting the Christian vote. His opponent, Mary Swain, a sexy, well-financed newcomer, does not have a firm grip on American history or elemental economics. Meanwhile an anonymous political blogger, “Desert Machiavelli” is exposing new secrets daily.
The Angry Buddhist
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
Review
The Angry Buddhist is a great novel. It's satirical, it's political, it's sexual. All the things that I love dearly. Finally, something to come home to."
--Larry David
THE SMALL, DRY TOWNS that lead eastward from Los Angeles to Indio, across the lap of California, form an island chain in a sea of sand, each with its own biome and yet each enough like the other to form, in aggregate, one place. The chain is a kind of Galapagos, easily isolated by its natural isolation, and ripe for study. It is in this insular region that The Angry Buddhist, Los Angeles writer Seth Greenland's third novel, operates, studying closely the evolutionary winners and losers of the area. But of course any region, even a solidly organized body such as that grassy monolith, the American Midwest, is never really just one place. There are subtleties and shadings visible only to those with adapted eyes, and it is those subtleties that Greenland crafts into a wild social farce, dependent on fine distinctions...
It is the human extremes that are Greenland's subject, and he captures the high and low end with a crafty gaze. He begins, logically, at the center, where there is plenty of shelter.
--Alison Powell (LA Review of Books)
This idea -- that messy and inept human striving is the best producer of plot -- recalls the recent fictive universes of Elmore Leonard, Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers (lords of anarchy, all of them, and, I'd venture, influences here). This novel is Greenland's third, after "The Bones" and "Shining City," and it's easily his most ambitious.
Some one-liners still come off sounding too glib and cute (a young reporter "looks like she studied at the Victoria's Secret School of Journalism" and "Guilt is as pointless as the Pope in Tel Aviv"), but it's better to stuff in too many jokes than avoid them altogether. In any event, Greenland does bring more serious themes into play. The big issue, explored through the questing character of Jimmy Duke, is: "how is it possible to practice non-attachment if you have a moral perspective on the world?"
Novelists too need to be nimble, and "The Angry Buddhist" is a wild entertainment as well as a novel about the way we live now that dares to dance with the profound.
--Richard Rayner (LA Times)
"Profundity can be found in the strangest places," DharmaGirl counsels. "Everyone makes fun of fortune cookies. I don't know why."
"The Angry Buddhist" approaches all its characters with reliable misanthropy (not for nothing does Larry David provide this book's most visible blurb). And its story unfolds with dexterous ease. Even a minor figure like Hard's wife, Vonda Jean, who wears "an expression as nurturing as an oil spill" and always leaves the television on "so she'll have something else to listen to in the event Hard starts talking," is made funny and sharp. The book's women are more cartoonish than its men. But the competition is pretty fierce.
"The Angry Buddhist" makes a fine high-end beach read for election season. But, perhaps surprisingly, the least interesting story element in "The Angry Buddhist" is the anonymous political blogger who provides a running commentary on campaign issues. The blogger tethers this otherwise escapist fable to real life.
--Janet Maslin (New York Times)
--Larry David
THE SMALL, DRY TOWNS that lead eastward from Los Angeles to Indio, across the lap of California, form an island chain in a sea of sand, each with its own biome and yet each enough like the other to form, in aggregate, one place. The chain is a kind of Galapagos, easily isolated by its natural isolation, and ripe for study. It is in this insular region that The Angry Buddhist, Los Angeles writer Seth Greenland's third novel, operates, studying closely the evolutionary winners and losers of the area. But of course any region, even a solidly organized body such as that grassy monolith, the American Midwest, is never really just one place. There are subtleties and shadings visible only to those with adapted eyes, and it is those subtleties that Greenland crafts into a wild social farce, dependent on fine distinctions...
It is the human extremes that are Greenland's subject, and he captures the high and low end with a crafty gaze. He begins, logically, at the center, where there is plenty of shelter.
--Alison Powell (LA Review of Books)
This idea -- that messy and inept human striving is the best producer of plot -- recalls the recent fictive universes of Elmore Leonard, Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers (lords of anarchy, all of them, and, I'd venture, influences here). This novel is Greenland's third, after "The Bones" and "Shining City," and it's easily his most ambitious.
Some one-liners still come off sounding too glib and cute (a young reporter "looks like she studied at the Victoria's Secret School of Journalism" and "Guilt is as pointless as the Pope in Tel Aviv"), but it's better to stuff in too many jokes than avoid them altogether. In any event, Greenland does bring more serious themes into play. The big issue, explored through the questing character of Jimmy Duke, is: "how is it possible to practice non-attachment if you have a moral perspective on the world?"
Novelists too need to be nimble, and "The Angry Buddhist" is a wild entertainment as well as a novel about the way we live now that dares to dance with the profound.
--Richard Rayner (LA Times)
"Profundity can be found in the strangest places," DharmaGirl counsels. "Everyone makes fun of fortune cookies. I don't know why."
"The Angry Buddhist" approaches all its characters with reliable misanthropy (not for nothing does Larry David provide this book's most visible blurb). And its story unfolds with dexterous ease. Even a minor figure like Hard's wife, Vonda Jean, who wears "an expression as nurturing as an oil spill" and always leaves the television on "so she'll have something else to listen to in the event Hard starts talking," is made funny and sharp. The book's women are more cartoonish than its men. But the competition is pretty fierce.
"The Angry Buddhist" makes a fine high-end beach read for election season. But, perhaps surprisingly, the least interesting story element in "The Angry Buddhist" is the anonymous political blogger who provides a running commentary on campaign issues. The blogger tethers this otherwise escapist fable to real life.
--Janet Maslin (New York Times)
About the Author
Seth Greenland is the author of the novels The Bones and Shining City. His first play, Jungle Rot, was the winner of the Kennedy Center/American Express Fund for New American Plays Award, the American Theater Critics Association Award and anthologized in Best American Plays. He was a writer-producer on the Emmy-nominated HBO series Big Love and one of the original bloggers on the Huffington Post. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the literary journal Black Clock. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Bob
Format:Paperback
It's fast, funny, and entertaining but I hope the publisher will clean up the text before the next printing. There are lots of basic errors like "its" for "it's," "lets" for "let's"--as many as two on a couple of pages. One location, the Fake 'N' Bake tanning salon, gets at least three versions of its name. There are also some dangling modifiers that one can only assume are unintentional because they don't serve the style or sense. I hate to sound churlish because I am enjoying the book--I'm about halfway through--but the level of copyediting/proofreading mistakes is distracting.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
"No one is entirely governed by malevolence. And no one is entirely governed by virtue."
April 24, 2012
Format:Paperback
In a California desert-scape of Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Borrego Springs and surrounding, albeit less-notable communities, drama is brewing in the midst of a political election. While incumbent Randall Duke assembles his faithful troops, newcomer Mary Swain, a comely beauty waving a decidedly conservative political banner, has captured the attention of a significant base of supporters, one of her admirers the hard-bitten Chief Harding Marvin, of Desert Hot Springs. Of course, public personas are far removed from the real life encounters in these desert enclaves, from extra-marital affairs to blackmail and murder, as behind-the-scenes behavior threatens to spill into public view. A messy double murder leads investigators to local personalities as the sloppy crimes yields more than one bedroom scandal and potential murder suspect.
Greenland writes like a desert-bleached Tom Wolfe, his raft of colorful characters flawed and often unlikable, from Randall Duke to the politico's ex-cop brother, Jimmy, and ex-con brother Dale, Jimmy clearly the most salvageable of the three, newly-released Dale relegated to a wheelchair that hardly impedes his criminal predilections. Then there are the ladies, Randall's indiscreet wife, Kendra, Marvin's wife Vonda Jean and the remarkably indiscriminate murder victim, Nadine Never. Small time crook Odin Brick and Randall's campaign manager, Maxon Brae, fill out the roster, along with Jimmy Duke's online Buddhist counselor and the desert Machiavelli, a blogger who reveals everyone's dirty little secrets. Like the prodigious Mr. Wolfe, Greenland is sometimes bitingly clever and sometimes a little too smug. One thing for sure: where there's wealth and power, there's greed and temptation. Luan Gaines/2012.
Greenland writes like a desert-bleached Tom Wolfe, his raft of colorful characters flawed and often unlikable, from Randall Duke to the politico's ex-cop brother, Jimmy, and ex-con brother Dale, Jimmy clearly the most salvageable of the three, newly-released Dale relegated to a wheelchair that hardly impedes his criminal predilections. Then there are the ladies, Randall's indiscreet wife, Kendra, Marvin's wife Vonda Jean and the remarkably indiscriminate murder victim, Nadine Never. Small time crook Odin Brick and Randall's campaign manager, Maxon Brae, fill out the roster, along with Jimmy Duke's online Buddhist counselor and the desert Machiavelli, a blogger who reveals everyone's dirty little secrets. Like the prodigious Mr. Wolfe, Greenland is sometimes bitingly clever and sometimes a little too smug. One thing for sure: where there's wealth and power, there's greed and temptation. Luan Gaines/2012.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
"The Angry Buddhist" is Seth Greenland's third book. I have read the other two, 2005 "The Bones" and 2008 "Shining City". I have enjoyed all of his books giving all of them a 4 star rating. Mr. Greenland has away with characters and plots, there is a hint of Carl Hassen in his books (high praise).
I will not go into the story-line, many other reviews have already done this so I will just rate the book on its elements (0 to 5 being highest):
Protagonist Development: 4
Antagonist Development: 4
Minor Character Development: 3
Storyline: 4
Setting: 3
Theme: 4
Writing Style: 4
Overall Rating: 4
I will not go into the story-line, many other reviews have already done this so I will just rate the book on its elements (0 to 5 being highest):
Protagonist Development: 4
Antagonist Development: 4
Minor Character Development: 3
Storyline: 4
Setting: 3
Theme: 4
Writing Style: 4
Overall Rating: 4
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous Noir
Three brothers -- one a political fraud, one damaged beyond repair, and the third simply damaged -- make up the holy trinity in this fabulous noir novel. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Laurie Winer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, intelligent, wonderful
I honesty can't remember when I've enjoyed a book more. This is the first novel I've read by Mr. Greenland and I'm sure to read more. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Jacob
1.0 out of 5 stars
what's with the title
Ultimately I'm upset that the title has nothing at all to do with the book. Why did the author choose this title? Completely misleading.
Published 26 days ago by David M. Silva
2.0 out of 5 stars
Tossed off
I agree with "Bob" regarding the typo's and other errors, including one scene that begins with Randall planning his first campaign visit to a golf club, then three pages later, the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jake Mckenna
1.0 out of 5 stars
And the point was ...
I am 64. I have been a Zen Buddhist / Soto tradition / White Plum lineage for 53 years. This is not the forum to discuss 'anger' as it is a very deep subject that has been... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mitchell G. Lewis
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great read!
Loved it! After spending months without finishing a book, I read this one from cover to cover in two days! I just sent for another Seth Greenland novel.
Published 4 months ago by Howard Harawitz
4.0 out of 5 stars
a good mystery
It was not what I expected, but was good. It's not your typical detective book though. I don't care for the rote detective novels anyway.
Published 4 months ago by Terry J. Dailey
4.0 out of 5 stars
4.5
Loved the book: the story line, the characters, the settings. However, felt the ending was just a little left undone.
Published 5 months ago by Quay M. Garriga
4.0 out of 5 stars
A bleak, but bitingly funny satire on how corrupt our political system...
Greenland is a terrific writer, and I enjoyed this book very much, although maybe not quite as much as his previous novel, The Shining City. Read more
Published 7 months ago by J. Luiz
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great, but agree w/ Bob about the proofreading
I'm about 300 pages into the novel and loving it. I'm purposely reading it slowly over two weeks instead of reading it in two nights. Read more
Published 7 months ago by CM
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