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A young man about to complete college, Troy is trying to put his destructive habits behind him and lean into Buddhist teachings, which are helping him move forward. He is working at a café for the summer while trying to find a teacher to help him better understand dharma. Also, he is trying to navigate family life in his parents’ post-divorce era while building a stronger relationship with his girlfriend, Maggie.
Troy asks a friend and mentor named Abe to be his teacher, but Abe says he isn’t really qualified. He puts Troy into contact with Jules, a teacher and luthier. Troy is also a guitar player, so this arrangement suits his temperament fine. However, Troy begins to question if this search is not leading him to lead two separate lives between the everyday world and the desire to be more enlightened. This is complicated when he learns that a close relative is nearing the end of his life.
Ettele’s book blends the fictional drama of Troy’s transformation with that of an informative introduction to the study of dharma, particularly focused on how overcoming the three poisons of ignorance, desire, and anger can impact everyday life. Troy must overcome his own misconceptions and start looking for a more unattached, benevolent, and equitable treatment of all people. Ettele’s writing is grammatically clean and easy to read, and her passages, which dig more deeply into the philosophy discussed, seem thoroughly researched and mostly accessible. Readers who come to the book with a primary interest in the study of dharma will likely find the fictional framework helps to keep the book grounded in the ordinary and recognizable.