Tuesday Teaser: Dinner with Buddha by Roland Merullo

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can participate, just do the following:

• Grab your current read and open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and the author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

Expected publication: June 2,  2015
by Algonquin Books

"During those years there had been several emotional and psychological body blows - I'll go into detail a little later - I'd started keeping irregular hours, gained weight, wandered off the spiritual path into an All-American backwater of TV watching and semi-indolence, a therapy of game shows, take-out meals, and bottles of red wine. It was a dark night of the soul, maybe." (p.2) 

The synopsis from Goodreads.com: 

The author of Breakfast with Buddha brings his characteristic whimsy to a new novel about New York book editor Otto Ringling and Mongolian monk Volya Rinpoche, who embark on a road trip from Rinpoche’s meditation center in North Dakota to the glitter and glitz of the Las Vegas strip. What prompts the trip is Otto’s recently altered life, having lost first his wife, then his job, and then seeing both his children leave home for lives of their own. With Rinpoche’s guidance, he hopes to find a new meaning in his life, and a new direction. But what begins as a quietly contemplative journey becomes much more, as the two men travel through the heart of the American midwest, witnessing the decimated lives of so many American natives and giving Otto new perspective on the trials he is experiencing in his own life. Along with these inner awakenings for Otto, there is also a very real hint of menace in the novel, as men show up who may be looking to make sure that the world never knows of the existence of Shelsa, the 8-year-old daughter of Rinpoche and Otto’s sister, Cecilia. Shelsa has consistently shown that she has the markings and the instincts of a spiritual leader, leading to speculation that she may be the new Dalai Lama.
The two previous titles are, BREAKFAST WITH BUDDHA (October, 2007) and LUNCH WITH BUDDHA (November, 2012) 

I'm about 30 pages into the book. It's interesting. The characters are for the most part very different from people I've been exposed to, but I think the author does a good job of trying to point out similarities that readers might find so they can connect better with the book. For example, that yes, Rinpoche is an enlightened teacher, but he is also the father of this lovely child, Shelsa. It's being told from the perspective of Otto, brother-in-law to Rinpoche and godfather/uncle to Shelsa. 

What are you reading this Tuesday? Share your teaser or a link in the comments so we can check it out. Happy Reading!