ZEN MASTER TOVA TARANTINO TOSHIBA: THE ILLUSTRIOUS AND DELUSIONAL ABBESS OF SATIRE by GABRIEL CONSTANS.SOURCE: Received for review from the author.
THE BOOK {According to the author's site}: This fictional short-story collection challenges perceptions and illusions about religious masters, spiritual teachers, gurus, charlatans, and holy men and women of all persuasions, while simultaneously tickling our funny bone and exercising the muscles our faces rely on for laughter. Zen Master Tova Tarantino Toshiba takes liberty with questionable material from the living sea, near Egypt; tofu paper, in Okinawa; a tomb, in Italy; a shaman, in Ethiopia; and a half-sister, in India. The words, quotes, koans and stories, of this soon to be classical work, include the timeless insights of Let the Worm's Go, Dead Food, Reality Bites, Stealing the Buddha, Drip After Drip, Sound of One Eye, Catching Wind, Looking Good, My Cat's Enlightened, Chocolate Box, and Sex, Drugs and Sushi Rolls.
FIRST SENTENCE {Troubling Times}: A student came to study with Master Tarantino Toshiba after a recent separation.
MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 6: Eyes Wide Open}: When it is pitch dark and you open your eyes, what do you see?
- 10,002 Koans by Master Tova Tarantino Toshiba.
MY THOUGHTS: A collection of quotes, sayings, short stories and words of 'wisdom' ranging from a sentence to a few pages long, the tone of which differ depending on where they 'originate' from. Master Toshiba is certainly like no other Abbess you'll ever encounter.
Quirky, novel, off-the-wall, I greatly admire the author's vision in creating something so different. I only regret that so much of the humour went way over my head but then more than any other genre humour is very much an individual thing.
9 comments:
Mmmm!
I definitely doubt this is a book for me. I do enjoy a good bit of satire and I definitely like a profound quote or two, but I am pretty heathen in my own life, so anything too religious, or even sacriligious, is to be avoided at all costs.
Yvonne.
This sounds like it could be really funny. I imagine some of it would go right over my head too. Definitely worth checking out though, I think!
Interesting. I'm not sure what an Abbess is.
I might have to check this one out. I do like off the wall humor. :)
Tracy, this book sounds like it would be a lot of fun to read (even if I didn't get all of the humor). Terrific review, and I am enjoying the new look of your blog.
This sounds like a very unique book! I hadn't heard of it before. Thanks for sharing!
As someone who is very skeptical of such things that this book seems to be poking fun at I think that I would appreciate this.
This type of book can be hit or miss for me, so I would just have to try it to find out. I have no idea if I'd get the humor or not. So....I don't think it's one I'd take a chance on.
A very different read, I suppose it is an acquired taste.
Not at all religious myself Yvonne though I do have an interest in anything I suppose you could call spiritual.
Stephanie, in brief an abbess is the female equal of an abbot. Generally the superior of a community of nuns, in this case Master Tova Tarantino Toshiba is a sort of Buddhist/zen abbess.
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