You, Me, and the Insects [Paperback]

Barbara Henning (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2005

Fiction. YOU, ME, AND THE INSECTS is cumulative, thenarrative, detail by detail, drawing the reader into Gina's tense andecstatic experiences as she travels from the East Village to south India tostudy with a Brahmin acharya, a master teacher of meditation, philosophy andhatha yoga. While negotiating daily life in a third world country, Gina alsoconducts a careful examination of her present reactions, as well as her lifeduring the 70s in Detroit when she lived in a bohemian community with herlover and family. Her teacher instructs her in how to transform hersamskara--impressions left from previous actions--so that the present momentbecomes illuminated. Other Barbara Henning titles available from SPD are her poetry collections MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY, LOVE MAKES THINKING DARK, and SMOKING IN THE TWILIGHT BAR.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barbara Henning was born in Detroit, Michigan. She has lived in New York City since 1984 and is the author of three collections of poetry, Smoking in the Twilight Bar (United Artists, 1988) Love Makes Thinking Dark (United Artists, 1995), Detective Sentences (Spuyten Duyvil, 2001), a novel Black Lace (Spuyten Duyvil, 2001), an autobiographical novel You, Me, and the Insects (Spuyten Duyvil, 2005); three artist book collaborations, Words and Pictures (with Sally Young), The Passion of Signs (with Georgia Marsh, Leave Books), and How to Read and Write in the Dark (with Miranda Maher); and two pamphlets, Me and My Dog from Poetry New York, In Between from Spectacular Diseases (England); and a series of photopoem booklets, Found in the Park, Up North, Aerial View, Teacher Training, Thakita Thaka, and My Autobiography. She teaches at Long Island University in Brooklyn and is the editor of Long News Books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Spuyten Duyvil (April 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972066268
• ISBN-13: 978-0972066266
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,786,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Blurbs and a Review, September 4, 2005

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This review is from: You, Me, and the Insects (Paperback)

You, Me, and the Insects is a heartening, bittersweet story of a spiritual struggle and transformation, told in parallel universes of mother, writer, wife in secular USA and dedicated struggling western yogini in luminously detailed India. The writing is marvelously rich, layered, the narrative is compelling. The phenomenal world is the source of terrific insight, delight and surprise. This is not a pretentious New Age memoir but an ageless picaresque and imaginative voyage. A major accomplishment for this extremely salient, charged writer.-ANNE WALDMAN

This is a miracle of a book. Barbara Henning has taken seemingly unpromising materials-the demanding study of yoga in southern India; the daily incidents of life there; the recollection of starting a family with a husband now dead-and transformed them into a narrative that is gripping, entertaining, and intensely moving. It is a triumph of imagination restoring irresistible vivacity to the perishable treasures of memory.-HARRY MATHEWS

Barbara Henning's astonishing new semi-autobiographical novel, You, Me and the Insects, is set in Detroit's Cass Corridor, New York and finally in Mysore, India, some 20-odd years later. While in India, Henning's narrator, Gina grows spiritually, developing a profound relationship with her guru while discussing yogic traditions manifested in India and the United States, as well as the history of Hindu mythology and sacred Vedic texts. But one of the few clear philosophical directives he gives her-"It is your duty to be joyful"-illuminates the foundation of their work together, and informs Henning's project as a whole: Discipline is an undeniable component in a spiritual quest, but creative force is equally vital. Enlightenment is not for the passive. In You, Me, and the Insects, Henning has written a testament to living and devotion-LYNN CRAWFORD (Review, Metro Times, Detroit, July 6-12, 2005).