Professor Chandra follows his bliss : a novel
Record details
- ISBN: 0525511385
- ISBN: 9780525511380
- ISBN: 9780525511380
- ISBN: 0525511385
-
Physical Description:
print
349 pages ; 22 cm - Edition: First U.S. edition.
- Publisher: New York : The Dial Press, [2019]
Content descriptions
Summary, etc.: | "P.R. Chandrasekhar, the celebrated professor of economics at Cambridge, is at a turning point. He has sacrificed his family for his career, but his conservative brand of economics is no longer in fashion, and yet again he has lost the Nobel Prize to a rival. His wife has left him for a free spirited West Coast psychiatrist and relocated to Boulder, Colorado. His son, a capitalist guru with a cult following, mocks his father's life work; his middle daughter, the apple of his eye, has become a Marxist and refuses to speak to him; and his youngest daughter is struggling through her teenage years with the help of psychedelic drugs. And then, the final indignity: He is hit by a bicycle and forced to confront his mortality. Professor Chandra's American doctor instructs him to change his workaholic ways and "follow his bliss"--and so he does, right to the coast of California, and into the heart of his dysfunctional family. Witty, charming, and all too human, Professor Chandra's path to enlightenment will enchant and uplift readers from all walks of life"-- |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | College teachers Fiction Families Fiction |
Genre: | Domestic fiction. Domestic fiction. |
Available copies
- 19 of 19 copies available at Bibliomation. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Rockville Public Library.
Holds
- 1 current hold with 19 total copies.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rockville Public Library | F BAL (Text) | 34035144449234 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Publishers Weekly Review
Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss : A Novel
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
In his follow-up to In Beautiful Disguises, Balasubramanyam demonstrates with insight and a dash of humor that it's possible to turn one's life around after everything goes wrong. Perfectionist Cambridge economics professor Chandra is a supposed shoe-in for the 2016 Nobel Prize in Economics, but someone else gets the award, and shortly thereafter the professor is hit in a bicycle hit-and-run and has a heart attack. Divorced for three years, he misses his ex-wife-who's now remarried to a Colorado psychiatrist. Meanwhile, Chandra's oldest son, Sunny, is in Hong Kong, having rejected his father's economic theories and set up a successful Institute for Mindful Business; his radical, socialist daughter Radha refuses to communicate with him and forbids the family to tell him where she is living; and youngest daughter Jasmine, academically adrift, gets involved with drugs. Things change when-part dare, part bribe-Steve, the husband of Chandra's ex, arranges for the professor to take a three-day self-awareness course at the Esalen Institute retreat center. Despite resistance to such a place, Chandra is genuinely transformed-though perhaps a bit too easily. Balasubramanyam makes a winning case for how meditation, restraint, self-reflection and owning one's character flaws can bring joy and satisfaction to life. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss : A Novel
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Once again this year, Cambridge professor P.R. Chandrasekhar has not won the Nobel Prize, and things are going to get worse before they get any better."Professor Chandra was the foremost trade economist in the world, could phone any finance minister in any country at any time and have them take his call." The fourth novel from Balasubramanyam (Starstruck, 2015, etc.) introduces its self-important antihero on the day he not only misses the Nobel, but is called on the carpet and asked to take a sabbatical because he has called a student an imbecile. On the way out, he is hit by a bicyclist and has a heart attack. Ordered to spend two months resting, he lies in bed and watches the entire first season of Friends, "finally understanding the jokes his children had made throughout the nineties." But Chandra has a great deal more to understand about his children; the simple relationships he had with them when they were small have long since soured. He has been estranged from his older daughter for several years, his son lives in Hong Kong and rarely visits, and his teenage daughter is in Colorado with his ex-wife, Jean, and her new husband, Steve. He goes to visit her in Boulder, but long-simmering resentments result in his punching Steve in the nose shortly after he arrives. In exchange for pretending to Jean that his injury was caused by swimming into the wall of the swimming pool, Stevea highly evolved being who has spent much time in Indiaforces Chandra to enroll in a three-day workshop at Esalen, the famous retreat center/hot springs in Big Sur. Here, the professor's bumpy road to self-awareness begins, with a detailed but not too didactic presentation of exactly what goes on at "Being Yourself in the Summer Solstice." Post-Esalen, a crisis befalls the family that gives Chandra the opportunity to rebuild his relationships.Recovering fuddy-duddy Chandra is a droll creation, and his journey of self-realization feels like the real thing. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
BookList Review
Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss : A Novel
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
When a somewhat embarrassing accident lands Cambridge economics professor P. R. Chandrasekhar in the emergency room, where he learns that he also recently suffered a mild heart attack, a young Californian doctor tells him that he's just ""gotta follow his bliss, man."" Chandra brilliant, cutting, hilarious, and clueless thought that's what he was doing, working with utter devotion to his field and his eyes on the prize (Nobel, that is). A situation with his teenage daughter catalyzes Chandra's renewed connection with all three of his children and a reckoning with this whole ""bliss"" thing, starting with his reluctant attendance at a therapeutic meditation retreat in Big Sur. Balasubramanyam (In Beautiful Disguises, 2001) sets Chandra on a journey through his hardest feelings, working through the anger and emotional ineptitude that too often conceal his infinite love for his family. At first, Chandra's children take even his self-blame for selfishness, but subtle changes in his introspection make for a big outward shift. With humor and emotional agility, Balasubramanyam writes a feel-good story that leaves room for feeling bad.--Annie Bostrom Copyright 2010 Booklist