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Adult Books - Nonfiction - Religion
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My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru.
Guest, Tim (author).
Feb. 2005. 320p. Harcourt, paperback, $14.95 (0-15-603106-X). 299.
REVIEW.
First published December 1, 2004 (Booklist).
“Sannyasins gathered together to abandon weight, to surrender themselves to levity. . . . The children of Bhagwan’s communes needed other things. We needed comfort. We needed a place to stash our Legos. We needed our home.” Now 27, Guest spent the majority of his first 10 years shuttling around the globe between communes organized by followers of the notorious Indian guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. In this stirring memoir, Guest combines thoroughly researched portraits of his controversial guru’s movement (and its subsequent downfall), his family’s story, and his own clear, poignant childhood memories of commune life. A contributor to London newspapers such as the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph, Guest writes with a reporter’s sense of economy and restraint, letting absurd, even shocking details speak for themselves. Guest remembers the heartbreaking loneliness and sorrow that “did not fit into the commune’s decade-long dream of laughter and celebration” as well as his profound confusion upon reentering mainstream society at age 11. But his anger toward the mother who periodically abandoned him has softened into a mature, deeply moving sympathy. Looking at one of the book’s many family photos of his young parents, Guest writes, “I want to take something of my heart and push it . . . back in time. I want to tell them I’ll be OK.” An intelligent, wry, openhearted memoir of surviving a childhood and a cultural phenomenon that were both extraordinary. — Gillian Engberg
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