Product Description

A yoga teacher finds new life in India–just not the one she was expecting.

Nearing thirty, Amanda thought she’d be someone else by now. Instead, she’s an ex-nanny yogini-wannabe who cranks out “For Idiots” travel guides. True, she has a sexy photographer boyfriend, but he’s usually off shooting a dogsled race in Alaska or a vision quest in Peru–or just hooking up with other girls. However, she’s sure her new assignment to the ashrams of India will change everything.

What she finds, though, is an ashram run by investment bankers, a model-obsessed guru, tantra parties, and silent retreats. India, it turns out, is not the spiritual refuge she’d pictured. But when a wandering mystic offers her an enigmatic blessing, Amanda realizes a new life may be in store for her after all.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58489 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-07
• Released on: 2009-07-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780307381651
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Cushman, coauthor of the nonfiction From Here to Nirvana and contributing editor to Yoga Journal, has written a hilarious take on the quest for truth that manages to respect the journey while skewering many of the travelers. Amanda, a 29-year-old fledgling yoga teacher, ekes out a living as a freelance writer in San Francisco and seizes the chance to go to India when her editor assigns her to research a guidebook about enlightenment. Soon she's traipsing around India pursuing trendy gurus and yoga masters and scoring insightful encounters with ordinary folk along the way. She also collects a traveling companion: the sweet-natured, celibate truth seeker Devi Das, who, upon viewing the polluted Ganges, advises Amanda to Think holy, not E. coli. The discovery that she's pregnant makes Amanda's quest for meaning all the more poignant, forcing her to review her choices while she struggles to uncover the elusive secret to happiness. Cushman brings devastating wit and a thorough knowledge of her subject to her first novel, evoking an India that fills the senses and stirs the spirit even as it occasionally turns the stomach, and making it possible for the reader to both laugh with and root for Amanda as she comes to terms with her messy life. (Apr.)
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Cushman’s engaging debut novel follows Amanda, a 29-year-old yoga teacher in northern California, on a tumultuous journey to India and back again as she researches a guidebook on finding inner peace. Her quest becomes as much a personal journey as a writing project as she attempts to shake her attachment to her fickle photographer ex-boyfriend, Matt, and discover her own role in life. While in India, Amanda meets Devi Das, a celibate hippie with flowing dreadlocks who is looking for meaning in life following a personal tragedy. Together, they travel to ashrams and yoga centers from Bangalore to Mount Arunachala, all the while searching for elusive enlightenment. Cushman brilliantly interweaves snippets of Buddhist teachings with the mishaps and successes of their journey, infusing the book with wisdom and humor. Devi Das, an amusing philosopher-king who uses the royal “we,” helps her accomplish this goal. As for Cushman’s protagonist, when unexpected circumstances arise and Matt turns up in her life again, Amanda is forced to reexamine her search for enlightenment and where it may take her. Over the course of her quest, she realizes enlightenment may be closer to home than she imagined. --Katherine Boyle

Review
A Booklist Top 10 First Novel of 2008
A Washington Post Media Mix Best of 2008 pick

"Each character is ripe for a little satire, which makes the novel a fun read, especially if you're in on the joke (and even if you aren't). Cushman also manages to capture the heart of their teachings, which gives the book another level of meaning...When you read between the lines for the wisdom that is woven throughout Cushman's fun romp, this book serves as a call to enlightenment and an introduction to yoga philosophy."
—Yoga Journal

“[A] bright new novel.”
—Marin Independent Journal

"If you’ve ever pursued enlightenment–or just toyed with the idea–you’ll see a bit of yourself in this playful but introspective first novel by Anne Cushman, a contributing editor to Yoga Journal and Tricycle whose writing also appears regularly in the Shambhala Sun. Enlightenment for Idiots follows Amanda, a prototypical questing Californian with a passion for yoga and a weakness for unreliable men. An unenthusiastic travel writer, Amanda finally sees a chance to get it all together when she lands a job to research and write a guide to spiritual sites in India. But the actual pursuit of enlightenment–hunting gurus and chasing poses and escaping irritating fellow seekers–turns out to be a bit mundane, if not downright disappointing. It’s Amanda’s own life that demands her attention, and as more chaos is heaped upon her, she’s forced to look inside for the answers she has been seeking. Cushman’s send-up of the New Age American dream is both thoughtful and wise."
—Shambhala Sun

"Cushman’s engaging debut novel follows Amanda, a 29-year-old yoga teacher in northern California, on a tumultuous journey to India and back again as she researches a guidebook on finding inner ...

Customer Reviews

Chick Lit Spirituality
I found this book accidentally at my local library, loved it, and recommended it to students in meditation classes that I teach. As the main character travels through India, she encounters virtually every spiritual tradition taught there, from hot yoga, to Vipassana Buddhism, tantric sexuality and complete renunciation. What I really love about the book is that it offers a real education on all of these traditions in an easy to read context. It actually reads like your standard chick-lit summer fare, but in the end, the concepts it is covering are more than a little sophisticated. It affectionately paradies many of the most famous (or infamous) contemporary spiritual teachers, such as Amma, Sai Baba, and Gangaji, and some of their more over-the-top devotees (all of whom I think I have met!) It manages to do this in a way that doesn't diminish these teacher's spiritual lessons, but does pose important questions about what true faith and spiritual inquiry is. If you want a read my full review, go to http://mommymystic.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/book-review-enlightenment-for-idiots/ . In any case, if you are interested in yoga, meditation, or all things India, check it out.

Everywoman Yogini
In Amanda's journey, I saw a lot of my own short year's journey into yoga. There was in all of Anne Cushman's characters a kind of manic searching as they tried to experience everything about yoga right now. The story worked for me like a total immersion in the yoga culture: wanting to understand the philosophy, wanting to perfect your asanas, dreaming about visiting India, looking for THE guru. All the characters felt real to me, and I enjoyed following their growth from start to finish. I will miss them and hope that Ms. Cushman brings them back in another novel.

A must read: "Enlightenment for Idiots"
"Enlightenment for Idiots' is my favorite novel of 2008. Much of it made me smile but the denouement was very moving. For those of us with a passion for yoga or for seeking alternative spaces; this is a must read. The characters were unique and the plot carried one along; wanting to know how it would all turn out. Initially, I was suspicious that the novel would be way too lite. I was pleasantly surprised and then some. The author, Anne Cushman, is well known to many of my friends who read Yoga Journal, Tricycle, etc. I was not familiar with her work but now I am.