Saturday, May 23, 2020

Favorite Memoirs and Novels about Spiritual Awakening

I was delighted with the response to my comments about literature in my BATGAP interview last week. https://batgap.com/ (In a day or two, I expect my interview will migrate from the top of the page, but it's interview #550 if you want to take a listen.)

Many people on the Facebook BATGAP page recommended books that are important to them, so if you're on FB, you might want to take a look. I want to post my own list of some of my favorite spiritual memoirs and novels here.

Note that this list does not include any of the hundreds of books that include biographical elements but are mostly commentary on what awakening/enlightenment is.

NOVELS ABOUT PEOPLE TRYING TO GET ENLIGHTENED (OR AT LEAST FLIRTING WITH IT)

Consolations
Sally Wolfe

Breakfast with Buddha, and Lunch with Buddha
Rolland Merullo

A Tale for the Time Being
Ruth Ozeki

Enlightenment for Idiots
Anne Cushman

Special Karma
Merry White Benerza

MEMOIRS

Ambivalent Zen
Lawrence Shainberg

Enlightenment Blues
Andre van der Braak

Turtle Feet
Nokolai Grozni

Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home
Natalie Goldberg

Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye
Marie Mutsuki Mockett

NOVELS NOT EXPLICITLY ABOUT ENLIGHTENMENT BUT WONDERFULLY SPIRITUAL

Beautiful Ruins
Jess Walters

The Hours
Michael Cunningham

In the future, I'll try to add a one-sentence summary of each book, but meanwhile you can Google them or find them at one of the three places I review books: here, the Buddhist Fiction Blog, or Goodreads.

Please feel free to comment. Especially if you've read any of these books, I'd like to hear your impressions.