JillFlorio

This enjoyable yogic chick-lit novel has three parts - the Pre-India, India and Post-India sections. The best part, and the bulk of the story, lies in protagonist’s India travels…in all their poverty-stricken, rotten-corpse-floating-in-the-Ganges glory.

Amanda, a part-time yoga instructor/part time guidebook author, is sent by her dragon-lady publisher to India in search of enlightenment. She ultimately finds the problem with packaging enlightenment into a “Dummies” book is that spiritual paths don’t run on deadlines.

Amanda jumps both feet first into India, fortunately befriended by an ex-pat, barefoot Sadhu (renunciate spiritual seeker). They travel across the Sub-Continent together, sleeping under mosquito netting on questionable mattresses, poling up the filthy Ganges and watching cows eat garbage in the streets. There’s an odd mix of the holy and the grotesque. The author’s voice seems genuine; she transports us with her to an honest view of India.

Amanda’s comic-desperate journey takes her from one promising enlightenment guru to the next. Each spiritual master takes a different tack on “The TRUTH”…hard core yoga, loss of individuality (who is the *you* who is asking about your truth?), strict ashram work schedules (her job is shoveling cow dung) and even ashrams with no leader (where the main activity, at least for Amanda, is sleeping in). Amanda finally backpacks in to an ascetic in a mountain cave who might actually possess the truth…and is suddenly, painfully sent home.

I found the India segment fascinating - I could have traveled with Amanda and Devi Das stumbling for enlightenment for years. Following her back to the states was a lot less fun.

The denouement was a bit of a let-down after all the colorful traveling and exotic misadventures. Back home, I sensed Amanda missed the sacred chaos and strange purity of her quest. I missed it too.

Amanda DID find what she was looking for, in a sense, and so did her publisher. And it’s really all we can hope for ourselves.

Overall, this was a fun read with some, ahem - enlightening moments, and a sort of “lite” version of the bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. Recommended for chick lit fanciers who don’t mind a little meat in their beach reading.

Enlightenment for Idiots: A Novel

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