Customer Reviews

A Zen Romance: One Woman's Adventures in a Monastery

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Far from being a self-aggrandizing memoir, a travelogue or a spiritual manual, this book reads like a rich, delicious novel. Sandra Boliver Boehm writes with a sense of humor about her college-age self, and with meticulous and sensual detail about her experiences in Japan in the 1970's. Her descriptions of the food she ate are enough to make a reader crave sushi every night. This is a phenominal coming-of-age tale, and a must for any intelligent young woman with a lust for adventure.

Some of the most exquisite writing I've ever encountered. This delightful memoir is quizzical, poignant, sparkling, honest and brilliant. It conveys the feel of a youthful search for spiritual adventure while unconsciously brimming with maturity and a rare kind of courage, both earthy and lofty. I'm eager for more, much more, from this exceptionally witty, literate and lyrical voice.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I have strong ambivalencies about the time I spent living in Japan, but reading this book evoked such strong, nostalgic images of all that is right and true about Japanese culture that I was ready to hop the next plane. I only wish that I had had her apparently excellent Japanese language skills, the more romantic locale of Kyoto over the more industrial Kobe where I lived, and the better luck with Japanese men!

I loved A Zen Romance. It is the true story of a young woman's years in Japan in the sixties and her experiences in all facets of the world she encountered - religions, monasteries, men, food and many wise and not so wise, fascinating characters. Her relationship with the men in the Zen monastery she lived near is a great story in itself. Another story is that throughout she was a "militant virgin." What I especially loved was that she kept her perspective and especially her sense of humor. Everyone should read this book. I can't recommend it highly enough.