A champion swimmer gives up her comfortable married life in an exclusive suburb in Connecticut to follow a guru to India, where she immerses herself in the wisdom of the East and achieves a deepening spirituality--at a price.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Again Tuck (Interviewing Matisse: or The Woman Who Died Standing Up) has taken stylistic risks and emerged triumphant. Her stark prose and allegory-inside-allegory narrative tug the reader, like an ancient Eastern conundrum, toward a "realization which is beyond understanding." Adele is a Connecticut woman of style, spoiled and lucky, solipsistic in her youth, superstitious now. When she visits Chartres with her husband Howard and two children on the day of the airing of the sacra camisa, she meets an Indian guru, whom she thereafter refers to as "Him," in the cathedral. That very day, Adele follows Him to Bombay, where she must learn to do nothing, forget everything. Her chameleon-like mentor gives her a room in His family-filled house but makes no promises, and as Adele lists sins and sheds habits and treasured objects, she moves toward an ascetic purity. He tells her she can't go back to her old life. Yet Adele does go back-to the beach resort her family has always frequented. An accomplished swimmer whose physicality often is part of her spirituality, Adele takes daring marathon swims far out in the Caribbean. The narrator, who has watched from the safety of the shore, is there on the day she doesn't return. Her husband is a material man who now grapples with his loss through incomprehensible dreams; the narrator, once an unheard listener, becomes the voice of enlightenment. This deftly and deceptively simple book is wondrously deep.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Tuck, author of Interviewing Matisse; or, The Woman Who Died Standing Up (1991), leaves much to the imagination in this spare novel about a woman's quest for enlightenment. Indeed, this compelling and enigmatic tale is not unlike a Zen koan, a paradox fashioned to inspire sustained, even circular meditation. We only know Tuck's heroine, Adele, through the eyes of an unnamed narrator, a woman who meets Adele at a Caribbean resort. The narrator, a former dancer, watches Adele and her three Irish setters swim alarmingly far out into the deep turquoise sea, so far out that they all but disappear. After they make their triumphant return, the women and the dogs sit and rest on the bright beach, and Adele tells her new friend about her sojourns in India, where she studied with an uncompromising guru. So taken was Adele with this stern man's teachings, she left her wealthy Connecticut husband and their two children to live the strictly controlled and comfortless life of a disciple. What wisdom did she acquire? What pain and loneliness did she suffer? Tuck lets us draw our own conclusions. Donna Seaman
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most thought-provoking book I've ever read!,
By
This review is from: The Woman Who Walked on Water (Mass Market Paperback)
I read this book three times, then I gave it to my husband to read. Not surprisingly, we both came to different conclusions as to the ending! It's a jewel that changes according to the light you hold it up to. It inspired me and uplifted me and most of all, caused me to THINK which is what I think the author had in mind. I will keep this book always and reread it every year. I highly recommend it to everyone.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Too Trite for Bookclubs,
By
This review is from: The Woman Who Walked on Water (Mass Market Paperback)
My bookclub rarely agrees on the quality of the books we choose, but we all agree this is poorly-written fiction. For example (and this is only one), the author used pronouns very sparingly, which made the narrative voice sound like a fourth-grade reading primer. Any enticing themes the story contains are overpowered by the annoying writing style. If you're looking for "stark prose" (a phrase used in a review for this book), pick up Hemingway instead.
4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Waste of Time,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Woman Who Walked on Water (Mass Market Paperback)
I took this book to read on the plane. Lucky for the author I was a captive audience with nothing else to do. There was nothing inspiring, thought provoking or even mildly interesting. The method of story telling jumped around and added some hint of mystery which is the only reason I finished it. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't capture the significance of the main characters journey or how/why she was so influenced to undertake the journey
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