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From Publishers Weekly
Australian radio correspondent Macdonald's rollicking memoir recounts the two years she spent in India when her boyfriend, Jonathan, a TV news correspondent, was assigned to New Delhi. Leaving behind her own budding career, she spends her sabbatical traveling around the country, sampling India's "spiritual smorgasbord": attending a silent retreat for Vipassana meditation, seeking out a Sikh Ayurvedic "miracle healer," bathing in the Ganges with Hindus, studying Buddhism in Dharamsala, dabbling in Judaism with Israeli tourists, dipping into Parsi practices in Mumbai, visiting an ashram in Kerala, attending a Christian festival in Velangani and singing with Sufis. Paralleling Macdonald's spiritual journey is her evolution as a writer; she trades her sometimes glib remarks ("I've always thought it hilarious that Indian people chose the most boring, domesticated, compliant and stupidest animal on earth to adore") and 1980s song title references (e.g., "Karma Chameleon") for a more sensitive tone and a sober understanding that neither mocks nor romanticizes Indian culture and the Western visitors who embrace it. The book ends on a serious note, when September 11 shakes Macdonald's faith and Jonathan, now her husband, is sent to cover the war in Afghanistan. Macdonald is less compelling when writing about herself, her career and her relationship than when she is describing spiritual centers, New Delhi nightclubs and Bollywood cinema. Still, she brings a reporter's curiosity, interviewing skills and eye for detail to everything she encounters, and winningly captures "[t]he drama, the dharma, the innocent exuberance of the festivals, the intensity of the living, the piety in playfulness and the embrace of living day by day..--he drama, the dharma, the innocent exuberance of the festivals, the intensity of the living, the piety in playfulness and the embrace of living day by day."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Booklist
Australian MacDonald didn't fall in love with India her first time there, at age 21. So when her boyfriend, Jonathan, a reporter for ABC, is sent there for work, she reluctantly follows after a year of separation. At first, life in India is as bad as she remembered it--overcrowded, smoggy, disturbing. A serious bout of pneumonia puts her in an Indian hospital, but as she recovers, she begins to make friends in India and to understand the culture. She finds herself attending lavish Indian weddings and trying to comfort her friend Padma, whose mother commits suicide after Padma marries without her permission. MacDonald makes an effort to understand the many diverse religions of the area, including taking a 10-day sojourn in a Buddhist temple and discussing religion with Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and even a group of visiting Israelis. With Jonathan, she takes a trip to war-torn Kashmir, an area that is at once achingly beautiful and devastatingly dangerous. A lively, snappy travelogue. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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› Consultez la page Sarah Macdonald d'Amazon
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2 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile
Format:Broché
I have just finished reading this (autobiographical) novel and I am not sure I can say I liked it... I laughed at some points because Sarah Macdonalds wrote things I actually thought when I travelled in India, but at the same time I found her writing full of prejudices about Indian and Indian citizens. Because of that some chapters seem quite ridiculous and even boring...
Sarah leaves her job to follow her fiance in India because he is an international reporter. Thus she becomes a housewife who gets bored and falls ill, so ill that she almost dies there. After that she begins a spiritual quest in the " Indian spiritual supermarket "... That's where she lost me.
It is true that she shares interesting information and anecdotes, but she just sounds like the stereotyped Western fake atheist who is craving for god. Her first mistake is to think that she is an atheist; atheists are not testing every religion hoping to find a sign of god. And that is exactly what she is doing. She tries everything: Hindu temples and festivals, she lives at a parsi family's place, she goes to Amritsar to get to know Sikhs, she joins a Jewish community for a while, she discovers Islam, she travels to Kashmir, she visits random gurus, meditation centres and ashrams, she meets Jains and realizes that until the end she keeps on despising Christianity which is supposed to be her original religion. In the end she never really feels anything and only remembers a fragment of each spiritual movement. She mixes everything and thinks she is improving...
I think people who are about to travel in India (thus they will expect the worse and be relieved once there) or who already went there can enjoy it in some way. This book is available in every bookshop and small stalls in India, and I wonder if an India actually read it one day!
Sarah leaves her job to follow her fiance in India because he is an international reporter. Thus she becomes a housewife who gets bored and falls ill, so ill that she almost dies there. After that she begins a spiritual quest in the " Indian spiritual supermarket "... That's where she lost me.
It is true that she shares interesting information and anecdotes, but she just sounds like the stereotyped Western fake atheist who is craving for god. Her first mistake is to think that she is an atheist; atheists are not testing every religion hoping to find a sign of god. And that is exactly what she is doing. She tries everything: Hindu temples and festivals, she lives at a parsi family's place, she goes to Amritsar to get to know Sikhs, she joins a Jewish community for a while, she discovers Islam, she travels to Kashmir, she visits random gurus, meditation centres and ashrams, she meets Jains and realizes that until the end she keeps on despising Christianity which is supposed to be her original religion. In the end she never really feels anything and only remembers a fragment of each spiritual movement. She mixes everything and thinks she is improving...
I think people who are about to travel in India (thus they will expect the worse and be relieved once there) or who already went there can enjoy it in some way. This book is available in every bookshop and small stalls in India, and I wonder if an India actually read it one day!
Format:Broché
Before I bought this book I read some commentaries by other readers. Some of them were negative. I do not agree. I think the author made a valid choice in evaluating her own western prejudices and in portraying India also in it's less pleasant aspects. The book reads fluently and is humorous with intelligence. Sara's quest for spirituality takes her along all cults and religions and is absolutely non offensive. People that have travelled to India before, like myself will have a heartily good laugh recognizing the idiosincracies of the country and their very own experiences. Those who still have to go will find it a source of inspiration and in a way informative. The book became a bestseller and rightly maintains a certain level of superficiality, to bad: it could have been much more. Great lecture for on the plane and a great book that I will not give away. Enjoy : )!
1 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile
Format:Broché
I was extremely disappointed by this book. The author uses the book to moan about everything she dislikes about India, she is very negative, disrespectful and mocking of huge parts of the Indian culture and religion/s. Its very frustrating to read her accounts of the different religions and how she makes fun of the masses who follow some of the sprirtual leaders in India. The author comes across very badly as a self obsessed, arrogant, silly Westerner and her writing style is poor. I forced myself to finish this book and felt angry at the end of it. It was a waste of money.
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