Reviews

When Amanda, an up and coming yogini and Idiot guide writer, is sent to India by her publisher to study enlightenment and how to get it, it’s like a dream come true. But after chasing enlightenment from Ashram to Ashram, guru to guru, Amanda wonders if “enlightenment [is] just the booby prize, the thing you went after when what you really wanted didn’t work out.”

“Normally, I do not associate the words “happiness” and “database,” but this is different”. Thus Eric Weiner begins his journey with a visit to The World Database of Happiness in the Netherlands. Upon being told that he may not like what he finds, Weiner admits that “while we may not be able to differentiate fine shades of happiness among countries, surely we can say that some countries are happier than others.” And he proceeds with his research.

In Cooked, Jeff Henderson tells an inspirational story of triumph over the odds. While growing up in the inner city, he is attracted to the wealth of neighborhood hustlers. Soon he is running drugs himself and making huge sums of money. At 24 he's arrested and spends ten years in prison where, while working as a dishwasher in the prison kitchen, Jeff discovers a passion that ultimately saves him.

"I realize that I'd remembered only the good things...how exotic it was...because with time blocking out the bad, memory is always bound to be a bit naive and stupidly optimistic." Guy Delisle returns to China for the second time to oversee an animation department and while the experience for him is excruciatingly boring (he can go for days without speaking to anyone) his sharing of those three months is simultaneously interesting and laugh-out-loud funny. Having worked in animation for 10 years, his illustrations are brilliant as well.

When I started reading this book I thought it a little too literary for my taste and spent too much time toggling between the book and my dictionary. It is at heart, a philosophical novel, with characters who read Marx and The German Ideology, while others contemplate Japanese suppuku. My opinion changed on exactly page 108 with a misplaced comma. Renee Michel, who is the concierge at an apartment building inhabited by wealthy people, finds this an underhanded attack.

Marcus is intelligent and tech savvy enough to thwart the efforts of his school administrators who keep tabs on his activities. But when terrorists attack San Francisco while Marcus is skipping class with his friends, his whereabouts make him suspect and he is picked up by Homeland Security.

As fear grips the city, Marcus is dismayed at how easily people, including his liberal parents, are willing to sacrifice their personal liberties for a false sense of security. Marcus utilizes his knowledge of technology to embark on an underground campaign against Homeland Security.

Tobias Wolff, who teaches creative writing at Stanford, has led an interesting life. His success comes despite a precarious childhood, from which he escaped through a combination of quick wit and good luck. So it’s no surprise that his novel Old School, which draws on his personal experience, is a fascinating exploration of the precarious nature of class and social status.