JillFlorio

This is a screwball comedy about a family (mom, dad, son, grandma and grandpa) all busy “seeking” something - the thing is, none of them are quite sure what it is.

Nina, the protagonist, owns a posh yoga studio in New Jersey. She’s the perfect enlightened yoga instructor (at least to all appearances) until a feng shui consultant wanders in to tell Nina her studio has bad energy - setting off a ripple effect of comedi-tragic events.

As Nina becomes increasingly freaked out by her feng shui worries, her husband loses his job, her normally good son acts out in school and her blustering parents decide to visit. All of this is framed by the ominous arrival of Hurricane Ida, an ideal metaphor for this family’s internal chaos and desperation.

You can taste the sense of squeaky-clean New Jersey suburbia - and understand the price people pay to maintain such outward “perfection.” Like many families, Nina’s picture perfect projection isn’t built on solid ground.

If you grew up in a family of strong women on the East Coast, there are a lot of recognizable elements here: Nina’s own controlling thoughtlessness; Nina’s old school, matriarchal overbearing mother; a mellow, slightly cowed, slightly incompetent set of “good provider” husbands; and the quiet son who decides to rebel against the Stepford-perfect ways of his politically-correct, New Age mom by secretly becoming an orthodox Jew.

Each character is cunningly drawn and entirely realistic, even if the series of events is not. There are no heroes, or even villains here (well, except the actually very scary Homeland Security officer).

The resolution offers no nicely packaged answers. Everyone is still a bit messed up. Perhaps they’ve have drawn back from the edge of desperation and grown slightly in self-knowledge.

Or maybe not. At the very end, Nina reveals she’s latched onto her next big thing…

It’s a short book and a quick read. While the plot isn’t particularly compelling, I found it hard to put the novel down. If anything, this story could have been an episode of Desperate Housewives…

Fear and Yoga in New Jersey

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