I 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.
--Chiron, 5/28/16
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