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cantrustagemini's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
givnuapeacesign's review against another edition
3.0
This one was Very hard for me to get into. There was an incredible amount of backstory to help the reader understand how Professor Chandra had gotten to the place where he was. For he was an aging respected economist , looking forward to finally winning the elusive Nobel Prize in Economics. That was his life’s goal, and at 69, no matter how hard he worked, it just didn’t seem to be possible. His family life was in shambles, having lost his marriage and was estranged from his oldest daughter. That took a lot of pages to inform the reader. I threatened to put the book down. But I’m just not that type. The second half showed his personal reflections and means of healing himself within to finally heal his relationships. I did not find this book hilarious as many reviewers have. But I did find some of myself in Chandra’s ego and the way he judged others. It made me examine the ways I spoke to and about my son. I hope I can apply some of this to my words and realign them with the pride I feel.
chadmy123's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
booktimewithelvis's review against another edition
5.0
Entertaining and thought provoking
I enjoyed this book very much it was both entertaining and moving, it's is a departure from the books I normally read and I am glad I embraced the chance to read something new. If you want something light hearted and thought provoking then I highly recommend this book.
I enjoyed this book very much it was both entertaining and moving, it's is a departure from the books I normally read and I am glad I embraced the chance to read something new. If you want something light hearted and thought provoking then I highly recommend this book.
faysieh's review against another edition
3.0
An unusual book which is part fiction and part self-help guide although I am sure the author does not see his creation as such. The reason I say self-help guide is because this book explores what happens when our core beliefs - in Professor Chandra's case - being clever, having a good education, achieving, pushing oneself and being defined by professional status - are challenged and rocked to the very heart of oneself through a series of incidents. These incidents and Chandra's journey of self-discovery do challenge the reader to think of their own core beliefs, what is important to them and what happens in life when the things we hold dear begin to fall apart. Emotionally intelligent with some humour, I did however find this book somewhat disappointing. I liked Professor Chandra and felt empathy towards the way in which he was trying to re-evaluate what was important to him but I didn't like Steve, the new partner of Chandra's ex wife, nor Sunny. I experienced a bit of emotional investment in characters Radha and the other daughter (now can't remember her name!) but otherwise this was a book that one can easily forget. The synopsis talks about 'a trip of a lifetime' but for me that is overstated. It is a gentle read that isn't going to wow anyone.
urbansapphire's review against another edition
3.0
Professor Chandrasekhar left India when he was 24 and now holds the impressive title of Professor Emeritus in Economics at an Oxford College. Thwarted once again in his attempts to win the Nobel Peace prize, he is lamenting his situation when he is very inconveniently run over by a chap on a bicycle. This leads to him experiencing a silent heart attack and at a not-so-spritely 69, this event gives Professor Chandra a timely glimpse into his own mortality, and to realise that what he is doing with his life is perhaps not what he would want it to be if he had not survived the accident. Quite apart from that, he actually might have a good number of years left, and is he really living his best life? The short answer, is no.
Chandra’s long suffering ex-wife Jean has remarried and is living in Colorado with her new husband, along with Chandra’s youngest daughter Jaz. His son lives in China and his eldest daughter is refusing to speak to him, or indeed even let anyone else tell him where she is. Frustrated at being estranged from each of his children, be it through geography and/or family politics, he resolves to try and fix this situation and being told he must take a break from work to recover from his heart attack, he takes the bull by the horns and takes a sabbatical, heading off to LA, where it’s warm and sunny and he is at least on the same continent as (some of) his family.
Chandra is a complex character. He’s cranky, he’s selfish, he’s pompous and he has a HUGE ego – and disappointingly, he’s definitely repeated the mistakes of his father despite knowing what an impact they have had on him. He finds it very hard to see things from an alternative point of view and although he tries and tries, he repeatedly gets it wrong and manages to push those he is trying to get nearer to, further away. The other characters around Chandra are just as complex and multi-faceted, and at times you can feel the frustration leaping off the page because as hard as they try, they just cannot connect past the cultural and mental barriers they have erected to keep the other out.
This isn’t a fast paced book – it’s more gradual changes than an moment of epiphany; In a lot of ways it is a coming of age, a coming into the self, however at 69 it’s just happening at the other end of life.
I enjoyed this book but I felt it dragged a little as there was a lot of navel gazing although in many ways, this felt in tune with Chandra’s character. The writing is nice and flows well, and though it is a slow read, it builds nicely.
I read this book at The Pigeonhole, the online book club, in return for an honest review.
Chandra’s long suffering ex-wife Jean has remarried and is living in Colorado with her new husband, along with Chandra’s youngest daughter Jaz. His son lives in China and his eldest daughter is refusing to speak to him, or indeed even let anyone else tell him where she is. Frustrated at being estranged from each of his children, be it through geography and/or family politics, he resolves to try and fix this situation and being told he must take a break from work to recover from his heart attack, he takes the bull by the horns and takes a sabbatical, heading off to LA, where it’s warm and sunny and he is at least on the same continent as (some of) his family.
Chandra is a complex character. He’s cranky, he’s selfish, he’s pompous and he has a HUGE ego – and disappointingly, he’s definitely repeated the mistakes of his father despite knowing what an impact they have had on him. He finds it very hard to see things from an alternative point of view and although he tries and tries, he repeatedly gets it wrong and manages to push those he is trying to get nearer to, further away. The other characters around Chandra are just as complex and multi-faceted, and at times you can feel the frustration leaping off the page because as hard as they try, they just cannot connect past the cultural and mental barriers they have erected to keep the other out.
This isn’t a fast paced book – it’s more gradual changes than an moment of epiphany; In a lot of ways it is a coming of age, a coming into the self, however at 69 it’s just happening at the other end of life.
I enjoyed this book but I felt it dragged a little as there was a lot of navel gazing although in many ways, this felt in tune with Chandra’s character. The writing is nice and flows well, and though it is a slow read, it builds nicely.
I read this book at The Pigeonhole, the online book club, in return for an honest review.
lauralynnwalsh's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this book more than I expected to, but I got a bit tired of it towards the end. It could have been about half as long for me. It is a sort of male mid-life crisis book, but in some respects that mirrors one of my favorite genres: coming of age novels for teens. Professor Chandra has to "come of age" and change his relationships to many aspects of his life: his profession, his ex-wife and her husband, his children, and, most importantly, himself.
books__brews_and_booze's review against another edition
5.0
Five million stars! If I could give this book more than five stars, I would! By page 10, I was chuckling at the humor. I found myself frustrated by characters’ actions, almost like they were my own family members, and cheering when Professor Chandra had a win.
I LOVE this book and know it’s one I’ll want to reread, which I can’t say for every book I enjoy. I also know, when I go to reach for a pen to underline a passage that resonates, that I’m going to want to keep this book in a prominent place on my bookshelf.
It’s lovely to go on this spiritual and familial journey with Professor Chandra and his family members. Life is complicated and families are complicated, but this book gives so much hope that, to quote Gil Scott-Heron, “no matter how far wrong you’ve gone, you can always turn around.”
And the ending? No spoilers, but all I have to say to author Rajeev Balasubramanyam is “thank you, thank you, thank you.”
************
I received this as a Goodreads giveaway, with gratitude, and these are my unbiased thoughts.
I LOVE this book and know it’s one I’ll want to reread, which I can’t say for every book I enjoy. I also know, when I go to reach for a pen to underline a passage that resonates, that I’m going to want to keep this book in a prominent place on my bookshelf.
It’s lovely to go on this spiritual and familial journey with Professor Chandra and his family members. Life is complicated and families are complicated, but this book gives so much hope that, to quote Gil Scott-Heron, “no matter how far wrong you’ve gone, you can always turn around.”
And the ending? No spoilers, but all I have to say to author Rajeev Balasubramanyam is “thank you, thank you, thank you.”
************
I received this as a Goodreads giveaway, with gratitude, and these are my unbiased thoughts.
bjr2022's review against another edition
4.0
Until I read Diane Barnes’s review of this book, I’d not been drawn to it. But Diane directly addressed my assumptions: that it was fluffy—a light read. She said it was a better book than she’d assumed it was.
The cover, cover blurb, and title seem to misrepresent it, conveying light fluffiness and fun, inevitably disappointing readers who want that and turning off those who want something substantive. But now that I’ve read and enjoyed this book, I understand the marketing conundrum. (More on that in a second.)
This is an easily readable, straight-forward account of a man, Professor Chandra, forced to admit his real feelings and soften his judgments in order to preserve the relationships with his beloved children. This is not inspired literary writing. It is occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, but as Jaline said in her review, “The story has humor but it definitely isn’t comic,” (so ignore the “searingly funny” cover blurb). The writing is almost simplistic in tone with dialogue that plays like the slow volley of a badminton game. For the longest time I thought it was a self-help book disguised as a novel—as Chandra negotiates a self-acceptance workshop at Esalen, gags at the psychobabble of his ex-wife’s shrink husband, and is aghast at the fantastically false teachings of his ambitious son—who calls himself doctor but has never earned the credential (Don’t get me started on lies of self-proclaimed gurus).
The territory of self-actualization workshops and the pervasiveness of group-think and group-talk among New Agers are familiar to me. But Chandra persists despite it because he is ready to change and rescue his family. Add to that the fact that he is so easy to identify with that I found myself working on myself as he worked on himself, and I finally concluded that the book is a secretly sophisticated “poke”—a nudge, a push, an invitation to think deeply and get underneath your own conditioning.
So back to the cover and the title: The title is accurate and right out of the text, representing the book’s tone. So too is the fluffy cover art. The problem is that although the book is conveyed simplistically, it is not at all simple. A dark literary cover would completely misrepresent it, as would a more poetic title, but you can only understand the cover art as a metaphor (joining the ocean of consciousness) after you’ve read the book. So how do you convey that this really simple-sounding story conveys an invitation to work on yourself and possibly contemplate things you’ve not dealt with? I have no idea, which leaves me reiterating Diane Barnes’s message: this book is much better than one might assume from its cosmetics.
The cover, cover blurb, and title seem to misrepresent it, conveying light fluffiness and fun, inevitably disappointing readers who want that and turning off those who want something substantive. But now that I’ve read and enjoyed this book, I understand the marketing conundrum. (More on that in a second.)
This is an easily readable, straight-forward account of a man, Professor Chandra, forced to admit his real feelings and soften his judgments in order to preserve the relationships with his beloved children. This is not inspired literary writing. It is occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, but as Jaline said in her review, “The story has humor but it definitely isn’t comic,” (so ignore the “searingly funny” cover blurb). The writing is almost simplistic in tone with dialogue that plays like the slow volley of a badminton game. For the longest time I thought it was a self-help book disguised as a novel—as Chandra negotiates a self-acceptance workshop at Esalen, gags at the psychobabble of his ex-wife’s shrink husband, and is aghast at the fantastically false teachings of his ambitious son—who calls himself doctor but has never earned the credential (Don’t get me started on lies of self-proclaimed gurus).
The territory of self-actualization workshops and the pervasiveness of group-think and group-talk among New Agers are familiar to me. But Chandra persists despite it because he is ready to change and rescue his family. Add to that the fact that he is so easy to identify with that I found myself working on myself as he worked on himself, and I finally concluded that the book is a secretly sophisticated “poke”—a nudge, a push, an invitation to think deeply and get underneath your own conditioning.
So back to the cover and the title: The title is accurate and right out of the text, representing the book’s tone. So too is the fluffy cover art. The problem is that although the book is conveyed simplistically, it is not at all simple. A dark literary cover would completely misrepresent it, as would a more poetic title, but you can only understand the cover art as a metaphor (joining the ocean of consciousness) after you’ve read the book. So how do you convey that this really simple-sounding story conveys an invitation to work on yourself and possibly contemplate things you’ve not dealt with? I have no idea, which leaves me reiterating Diane Barnes’s message: this book is much better than one might assume from its cosmetics.
zhzhang's review
4.0
I really like this story and and throughout the reading/listening, I can picture a middle-aged professor gets lost and finds her way again. It is not easy for both him and his family members. He has made up with his children and the most important, himself. It's been a while to read an encouraging book like this for a while.