Lunch with Buddha
Written by Roland Merullo
Narrated by Sean Runnette
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Roland Merullo
Roland Merullo is the bestselling author of more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Once Night Falls; The Delight of Being Ordinary; The Talk-Funny Girl, an Alex Award winner; Vatican Waltz, a Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2013 pick; Breakfast with Buddha, an international bestseller now in its twentieth printing; Lunch with Buddha, selected as one of the Best Books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews; Revere Beach Boulevard, named one of the “Top 100 Essential Books of New England” by the Boston Globe; and Revere Beach Elegy, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction. Born in Boston and raised in Revere, Massachusetts, Roland attended Brown University, where he obtained a bachelor of arts in Russian studies and a master of arts in Russian language and literature. A former Peace Corps volunteer, he’s also made his living as a carpenter, college professor, and cabdriver. Roland, his wife, and their two lovely daughters live in the hills of western Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.rolandmerullo.com.
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Reviews for Lunch with Buddha
78 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really enjoyed this 2nd book in the series, but it wouldn't satisfy everyone. I found reading about a three day solitary retreat exciting and interesting. If you are interested in such things I highly recommend this novel.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My first experience with reading Roland Merullo was "Dinner with Buddha," the third in his Buddha series of which Lunch with Buddha was the second. All three of the "Buddha" books were excellent and I have also read four other Merullo books which were also excellent.
Lunch with Buddha, like the other spiritual fiction books penned by Merullo, depicts a journey wherein various incidents allow for spiritual lessons, making the journey both a physical journey as well as a spiritual one. Each book works well as a travel story: road trips move from one place to another, usually a lesser known or out of the way location, and present the central character's impression of the various locales. Each locales also plays host to some sort of spiritual lesson, parables for larger spiritual teachings. In this way, the novelist presents some great, profound spiritual theology as applied to real-life type situations.
Merullo's use of a fiction to provide enlightenment and spiritual truths allows him to reach an audience who might not otherwise reach for a book of philosophy or spirituality. It is a great idea and succeeds well both in its philosophic aims and in offering interesting and engaging fiction.
A particular strength of these books is that they present the spirituality philosophy of the mystic who is cornerstone of each religion--Buddha in this case, Jesus in "American Savior"--rather than the theological interpretation of those philosophies as presented by the "organized religions" that formed after the mystic had died. In fact, the books frequently include episodes wherein the theological points are directly criticized. In Lunch with Buddha, for example, the theological heresy of "God Hates Fags" and of any theology that includes judgment, intolerance, hatred and calls for violence are all directly portrayed and unmasked for the frauds they are.
This book and its two companion volumes makes good fiction, good philosophy and good reading.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5not quite as good as breakfast with buddha, some spirituality, but not as much spontaneity, focuses a lot of Otto's loss of his wife.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simple story of a man who has lost his wife and how his family and extended family deals with it. Very interesting.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I first discovered Roland Merullo after reading Breakfast with Buddha. He has now published two sequels. Lunch with Buddha continues the story of the relationship between Otto Ringling and his sister Cecelia, who has now married Volya Rinpoche. They have a daughter, Shelsa. In Breakfast, Cecelia urges Otto to allow the Rinpoche to ride with him to North Dakota to settle the estate of his parents killed in an automobile collision with an intoxicated driver. Otto is a skeptic of the first order, and is suspicious of Volya’s intentions toward his sister. However, Otto begins to understand them during that trip. In Lunch with Buddha, the family gathers in Seattle to scatter the ashes of Otto’s recently deceased wife, Jeannie. Many parts of this novel deal with Otto’s handling his grief. On the return trip, Otto and Volya take delivery of a used truck, which an admirer has donated to Volya for use at his retreat house in North Dakota. Cececlia convinced Otto to donate the farm in North Dakota to Volya. On the drive from Washington State to North Dakota, Otto and Volya meet a wide variety of characters, from seers and fortune tellers, to oil field workers, to bigots, who assume Otto and Volya are some sort of couple. Otto has begun a three-quarters-hearted attempt at meditation, and is much more open to Volya’s teachings, despite the fact he fails to understand some aspects of his philosophy.At one point, Volya compliments Otto on his parenting. Volya says, “‘All the goodness has power with it, see?’ // ‘No.’ [Otto says.] // He threw back his head like a man laughing, but he didn’t laugh. There was a small smile there, a wrinkle of a smile, almost a wince. ‘Walk now,’ he said, ‘with me.’ // In his tone, in the suggestion, I recognized the start of one of what I thought of as his ‘mini-lessons.’ And I wanted a mini-lesson then. More than anything I wanted some new word, some serving of wisdom to change the way the world seemed to me at that moment. If it really were true that Shelsa was in danger, or would be down the road – and I wasn’t completely convinced -- then it was just more evidence of the unfairness of this life. A good woman, a mother, dying at age forty-eight. An innocent girl, hated by ‘bad men.’ Crucifixions, assassinations, bigotry in a thousand reptilian forms. Why didn’t good prevail? Why, if a person did, indeed, accumulate some power from being a good father, a good soul, or a great teacher, why didn’t that protect him or her from the hatred that grew everywhere on this planet like weeds in a hot lake?” (110-111). Ah, yes, the problem of evil. The insoluble mystery which has haunted Homo Sapiens for hundreds of millennia. I have taken many long trips, and experienced some of the same wonder at the beauty of our country – the land, the mountains, the lakes, and the landscape. Otto and I share such an experience. Merullo writes, “what often happens when I’ve made a long drive into the later hours is that my body cranks itself to stay awake, and then needs some cranking-down time. There was a bar at the Bighorn, a modest little place with sports on the raised TV and a small selection of local beers. I decided I’d have one solitary Moose Drool, watch fifteen minutes of the Olympics, and head upstairs to the room” (241). Otto is approached by a woman, and they begin a conversation. She invites him to her home, and he declines. He reviews this incident a couple of times in the novel, and I found his penchant for introspection highly interesting.Lunch with Buddha by Roland Merullo is a thought-provoking, insightful, wonderful examination of the journey we are all on. The third volume in this series, Dinner with Buddha is near the top of my TBR pile. 5 stars.--Jim, 5/28/16
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is the sequel to Breakfast with Buddha. Another road trip across the western U.S. with his Buddhist monk brother-in-law, leads to more spiritual questions and insights for Otto. Doubts and politically incorrect topics are dealt with great honesty. I highly recommend this series if you have any interest in Buddhist philosophy.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5[Lunch with Buddha] seems unlikely to appeal to a wide audience, just as Eastern religious beliefs continue to occupy only a relatively small niche in the U.S. national psyche. But if you're game, this is a well done spiritual road journey. Once again, after we first met them in [Breakfast with Buddha], skeptical but yearning Otto Ringling hits the road with his irrepressible guru brother-in-law Volya, a Russian Buddhist (who's actually omniverous in his religious consumption).Otto's had a happy, successful, comfortable life as an editor in New York. He describes himself as "Sophisticated, perhaps spoiled, a tad cynical, fond of strong coffee and the Times, witty in a big-city way, afraid of pain and death, open to the idea of a calmer mind but not yet quite to the associated antics that accompanied a serious spiritual practice." He has lost his wife Jeannie unexpectedly, and he is traveling with his children to Seattle to fulfill her wish of spreading her ashes out West. He is rudderless and hoping somehow to find his way. Volya, the Rinpoche, with his Russian accent, has a wide following, and Otto wants him to be the real thing. "After all these years, all these 'wessons', all the hours I'd spent in reading and meditation, if he turned out to be a kindly fraud, I think I would have taken to drink, or signed up for a lifetime of therapy, or never again in my life ventured off the safely beaten path." They ride together in an old pick-up (the gift of an acolyte) from the Northwest back to the family farm in North Dakota. Otto's sister and Volya, along with their spiritually precocious young daughter, now run a retreat there, much to the dismay of some locals. As Otto and Volya journey through well-described mountains and Yellowstone and wide plains, Volya looks to Otto to explain American culture. They have fun on water slides and in the "Boiling River" at Yellowstone, and Volya gets to learn about American food, marijuana, and various American eccentricities. There's a lively meetup with a group of transvestites in an unlikely locale, who go from skeptical and threatening to embracing. Volya is a sweet and funny character who clearly is no fraud. He also has no interest in behaving in some heavenly royal way for his followers. He knows Otto well, spent much time with Otto's dying wife, and gradually tries to lead Otto away from being lost in grief to being present with his family and others. Otto is an entertaining curmudgeon who is well aware of his many failings, and a father who wants the best for his teenage son and daughter, but has difficulty letting them reach their own decisions. Times when he finds himself, finally, giving them honest answers, rather than pat, fatherly advice, rang true for me. His reaction to horrifyingly realistic homophobia from fundamental Christians (who mistakenly assume he and Volya are a couple) also rang true. I enjoyed reading a book that takes on the more difficult questions we all face with humor and self-deprecation. Life, death, depression, religion, misguided religiosity, parenting, loss, the dangers of exalting the teacher, why we are here, all lightly and dextrously handled in a worthy follow-up to his equally enjoyable [Breakfast with Buddha].
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lunch with Buddha Amazes - Highly Recommended Read Breakfast with Buddha was an amazing novel that presented a wonderful spiritual journey. Lunch with Buddha is just as intriguing. Readers will delight in the story and the humor this work presents. Author, Roland Merullo has gone above and beyond in this new book. Included within the pages is an interview, a reader's guide and beautiful pictures. Now we've tasted Breakfast and Lunch, can't wait for an appetizing dinner.Thanks Roland - Great Read!!!HIGHLY Recommended