A Zen Romance is a high-spirited memoir by an American woman who went
to Japan in the late 1960s and--much to her own surprise--lost her
heart to Zen. When the author first went to Japan to study the
language, she was relatively unaffected by the Zen fervor then
gripping young people across the United States. She was even known to
announce, only half-jokingly, that she was going to Japan to "get
away from Zen." But as it happened, the small room she rented in
Kyoto was actually on the grounds of an ancient monastery. Over the
course of months of conversation and meals with the monks, her wry
sense of humor and unfailing generosity endeared her to them.
Meanwhile, their practical, down-to-earth values made the religion a
lot more appealing and accessible than she'd expected. Soon she was
completely captivated by the wit and paradoxes of Zen, and even
became the first foreigner allowed to take part in that temple's
O-Zesshin, a week of intensive manual labor and meditation. However,
just to complicate things a bit, one of the men there happened to
look quite striking with his shaved head and subdued kimono. And
before long she had caught his eye as well! Nothing is safe from the
loving touch of Boehm's razor-sharp wit, least of all her own
pretensions to greater wisdom. The book's rich, inventive language is
a delight in itself. And a large, finely developed cast of supporting
characters pushes the book closer to humorous novel than memoir.
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