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Loading... Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence (edition 2007)by David Guy
Work InformationJake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence by David Guy
Good Buddhist Novels (24) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This is a worthy attempt at psychological fiction in which the Buddhist outlook as a form of therapy, as well as a philosophy of life, is described and explored. The novel is well planned and structured. Readers seeking to learn how Buddhism translates itself into concrete day-to-day life experience will be rewarded. Some of the characterization seemed a bit thin at times but became more well rounded at the end. ( ) Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence David Guy I'll just put my biases up front: it was easy for me to like this book because it's about Boston, Buddhism, beer, and sex. If the author had thrown in a soccer game or a couple of hockey references and I might have called it The Best Book Ever Written. Fuller disclosure: the author, David Guy, has been my friend and teacher. From him I learned about two practices, writing and meditation. For the last month I have been recommitting myself to my meditation practice, and I am amazed at the subtle but profound difference it makes in my life. David was my primary instructor when I sat regularly at the Chapel Hill Zen Center. This book he has written can give you a taste of the kind of teacher he is: clear, real, and insightful. He sees and is shaped by traditional Zen teachings and practices, but reveals them in modern American life. He also shapes a great story and writes terrific dialog, all with humor and no sentimentality. I did not want the book to end. David's teaching has deepened my life, and Jake Fades shows how. no reviews | add a review
Jake is a Zen master and expert bicycle repairman who fixes flats and teaches meditation out of a shop in Bar Harbor, Maine. Hank is his long-time student. The aging Jake hopes that Hank will take over teaching for him. But the commitment-phobic Hank doesn't feel up to the job, and Jake is beginning to exhibit behavior that looks suspiciously like Alzheimer's disease. Is a guy with as many "issues" as Hank even capable of being a Zen teacher? And are those paradoxical things Jake keeps doing some kind of koan-like wisdom . . . or just dementia? These and other hard questions confront Hank, Jake, and the colorful cast of characters they meet during a week-long trip to the funky neighborhood of Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As they trek back and forth from bar to restaurant to YMCA to Zen Center to doughnut shop, answers arise-in the usual unexpected ways. Click here to listen to the author, David Guy, discuss Jake Fades on North Carolina Public Radio. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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