Dessert with Buddha by Roland Merullo
It was not the first road trip he had taken with a Siberian monk.
The first one, of course, was in Roland Merullo’s widely popular Breakfast with Buddha, in which New Yorker Otto Ringling reluctantly hooks up with his brother-in-law Volya Rinpoche, shares his thoughts and beliefs and gains new perspectives and appreciation for the world from this unorthodox traveling partner. Some 250,000 book sales later, Merullo followed his Breakfast bestseller with Lunch and Dinner versions of the Buddha experience.
Now, in Dessert with Buddha, Otto and Rinpoche continue their journey across America — and beyond, actually — in the name of The Good and in search of life lessons taught through the various people they meet along the way.
Inspired by the death of his wife, the sale of his house and, on a completely different scale, the Ukrainian war, Otto is coerced — with minimal resistance — by his sister (Rinpoche’s wife) to share the proceeds from the house sale with random unfortunate souls and people in need. It is called The Giving Project. Rinpoche has a “loose” road map, with the help of his sister, and, as one might expect, with quality time and undivided attention, Otto, the book’s narrator, receives nuggets of wisdom and exposure to people, places and situations that give him a fresh outlook on life.
Otto’s buying into the “Giving” concept steers the book in a positive direction, an immediate feel-good that promises a sort of spiritual freedom and cleansing. And the manner of the gifting is pure joy in itself. There are no such things as expectations from the recipients — this helps and hinders Otto’s decisions of how much to give — whether writing a check to a woman and her family in a poor Boston suburb or making an anonymous donation to an organization fighting a serious disease.
“It’s not about you, Otto,” Rinpoche reminds him after his first gift to the poor woman. And Otto himself ponders, “Somehow, that one visit had stirred up a hornets’ nest of doubt, cast my thoughts out over the entire American landscape, all the need, greed and ego, all the want, all my own pettiness and failings.”
As noted earlier, Merullo takes readers all over the world, and at one point, perhaps in the strangest scene of all, in trying to unite Rinpoche’s gifted, spiritually destined daughter with an equally special young boy in Italy, two most unusual guests somehow join them at the family’s dinner table. (I considered a spoiler, but no, read for yourselves.)
Just being in Rinpoche’s presence seems like a magical, wondrous ride. Rinpoche sees the good in people and is oblivious to evil, even if his outfit of robe and small yarmulke attracts unwanted sorts and discomfort for Otto.
Some of the beauty is captured in Otto’s observations in an art gallery, with Rinpoche naturally leading the way. Speaking of the artists, Otto says, “Those talented souls weren’t curing diseases, inventing a new kind of stove or building a company that would employ thousands … They were urging us to pay attention to color and texture, to the miracle of the human face caught in a moment of joy or pain …”
“Cezanne had understood there was nothing at all plain and ordinary about a hillside covered with plain and ordinary houses. Monet and Matisse and Sargent and Cassatt had understood there was nothing plain and ordinary about a flower garden, an angry sea, a woman and her sister conversing on a sofa …”
“Rinpoche was correct. It was pure appreciation for life.”
While Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is regarded as the quintessential cross-country road trip of two friends in search of meaning and hope through the American experience, don’t fault readers if this classic comes to mind while contemplating the Buddha series. Is there another course to come? For now, readers must simply savor Dessert with Buddha — dessert, that is, with a cherry on top.
Roland Merullo is an award-winning author of 27 books, among them: Breakfast with Buddha, a nominee for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, now in its 21st printing; The Talk-Funny Girl, a 2012 ALEX Award Winner and named a “Must Read” by the Massachusetts Library Association and the Massachusetts Center for the Book; Vatican Waltz, named one of the Best Books of 2013 by Publishers Weekly; Lunch with Buddha, selected as one of the Best Books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews; American Savior, a Massachusetts Center for the Book “Honor Award” winner; In Revere, in Those Days, a Booklist Editors’ Choice Recipient; Revere Beach Boulevard, named one of the “Top 100 Essential Books of New England” by the Boston Globe; A Little Love Story, chosen as one of “Ten Wonderful Romance Novels” by Good Housekeeping and Revere Beach Elegy, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction.
Merullo’s essays have appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times, Yankee Magazine, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He has been a frequent contributor of commentary for National Public Radio affiliates. Visit http://rolandmerullo.com.
Publish Date: May 15, 2023
Genre: Fiction
Author: Roland Merullo
Page Count: 282 pages
Publisher: PFP Publishing
ISBN: 9798986626635