The Holy Man's Journey - Hardcover

Trott, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573220574 ISBN 13: 9781573220576

Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover, 1997

Synopsis

In the sequel to the best-selling The Holy Man, Anna, recognized by the Holy Man as his successor, embarks on an odyssey with an ailing Joe to visit his former teacher, a journey that becomes a learning process for Anna and a spiritual cure for Joe's corrupted mentor.

About this title

About the Author

Susan Trott is the author of ten previous novels. She lives in Northern California with her husband, where they share a cottage and fishing boat.

Reviews

Sequel to Trott's The Holy Man (1995), which hit the bestseller lists--in San Francisco--for weeks. Trott has written ten novels, including Divorcing Daddy (1992). This modest story picks up with enlightened Anna and snide husband Errol and their two small kids still at the Holy Man's retreat on a sacred mountain in an Eastern country. Joe the Holy Man, now in failing health in his mid-70s, wants to go down the mountain for the first time in 25 years and see his mentor, Chen, for a farewell visit. As it happens, Chen is 25 years younger than Joe and has built a ``Univers-City,'' where 2,500 young disciples pay to keep Chen in luxury. Joe and Anna have several minor adventures on their way to Chen, and from each Anna learns something new via Joe's wisdom. During a visit to a shop, Anne is nearly raped but learns to accept blame for putting herself in danger's way. From a cab driver with an obsession to collect rare clay pots she learns about repressed creativity. From three beggar women she learns how to help the deprived feel worthy. Anna, it turns out, also has a gift for healing. At last she and Joe meet Chen, a Chinese genius who grew up in a Cambodian monastery before becoming Joe's teacher. Chen sees Joe as a great trickster, and when Joe dies offstage as Chen is speaking to his huge student body in the Univers-City auditorium, it's an act that an astonished Chen calls Joe's greatest trick. When Chen and Anna carry the old man's sweet-smelling corpse back to his monastery for burial, Anna discovers that her abrasive husband has seemingly run off with the kids. Meanwhile, Joe's death serves to jolt Chen back to reality. All right, mildly entertaining, but clearly for the already pre-sold. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Trott uses the concentrated form of the parable to entrancing effect in her latest two unabashedly spiritual books, The Holy Man (1995) and this potent tale, a continuation of the story of Joe, her irresistible cosmic hero. A true guru, Joe is gentle, wise, and blessed with a rich sense of humor. A half-dozen of his followers have gathered for a summer retreat, but Joe has other plans. His teacher, a man some 20 years his junior, is ill, and Joe has decided to visit him. He asks Anna, a healer, to accompany him, not because of his own precarious health, but because, unbeknownst to her, she is destined to be his successor. Each phase of their dramatic "learning journey" becomes a lesson in compassion and right action not only for Anna but also for Trott's spellbound readers. This is a deft, stirring, and universally appealing story inlaid with genuine wisdom and a palatable love of life. Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1573220574
• ISBN 13: 9781573220576
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 146