Research Catalog

My family and other saints

Title
My family and other saints / Kirin Narayan.
Author
Narayan, Kirin.
Publication
Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press, 2007.

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Details

Description
vii, 236 pages : illustrations; 24 cm
Summary
"In 1969 Kirin Narayan's older brother Rahoul announced that he was dropping out of school and leaving home to seek enlightenment with a guru. Young Kirin adored her high-spirited, charismatic brother and looked on bewildered at the events that his dramatic departure set in motion." "A funny, poignant, and always affectionate memoir, My Family and Other Saints follows the ways that Rahoul's spiritual journey reverberates through the entire, family. As the family's beachside Bombay home becomes a crossroads for Westerners seeking Eastern enlightenment, Kirin's sari-wearing American mother Didi enthusiastically embraces ashrams and gurus, adopting her son's spiritual quest as her own. Her urbane Indian father Narayan, however, coins the term "urug" guru spelled backward to mock these seekers. Meeting radiant holy men, sensing her parents drilling apart, and observing waves of young Westerners turning to meditation. Kirin is left to find her own answers. She listens closely to family stories and ponders Goddess mythology, all the while trying to hide the eccentric goings-on at her home from her classmates." "Deftly re-creating the turbulent emotional world of her bicultural childhood, but overlaying it with the hard won understanding of adulthood. Narayan presents a rambunctious cast of quirky characters, from Rahoul's friend Young Swamiji, who lives with his Mother Goddess in the jungle, to her grandmother Ba, who enjoys visits from Hindu deities, to such live in urugs as Bhagavan Das and the Cupboard Swami. Throughout, she brings to life not only a family but also a colorful era when just about everyone, it seemed, was consumed by some sort of spiritual quest."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects
ISBN
  • 9780226568201 (cloth : alk. paper)
  • 0226568202 (cloth : alk. paper)
LCCN
  • 2007022669
  • 40014820817
OCLC
  • 144328697
  • ocn144328697
  • SCSB-5379719
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries