Follow the eccentric, cantankerous, utterly charming Professor Chandra as he tries to answer the biggest question of all: What makes us happy? “Searingly funny, uplifting, and wonderful . . . Professor Chandra is as unbending a curmudgeon as one could wish to find scowling from the pages of a novel.”—Helen Simonson, New York Times bestselling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and The Summer … Pettigrew’s Last Stand and The Summer Before the War
Professor Chandra is an internationally renowned economist, divorced father of three (quite frankly baffling) children, recent victim of a bicycle hit-and-run—but so much more than the sum of his parts.
In the moments after the accident, Professor Chandra doesn’t see his life flash before his eyes but his life’s work. He’s just narrowly missed the Nobel Prize (again), and even though he knows he should get straight back to his pie charts, his doctor has other ideas.
All this work. All this success. All this stress. It’s killing him. He needs to take a break, start enjoying himself. In short, says his doctor, he should follow his bliss. Professor Chandra doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to embark on the journey of a lifetime.
Praise for Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss
“Professor Chandra is a wonderful character—stodgy, flawed, contentious, contemptuous—yet vulnerable, insecure, lonely, repentant, and ridiculous enough to win our sympathy. . . . In the end, Balasubramanyam’s novel is a sort of Christmas Carol for a new age.”—NPR
“Impressively, Balasubramanyam . . . balances satire and self-enlightenment [in] a surprisingly soulful family tale that echoes Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections in its witty exploration of three children trying to free themselves from the influence of their parents.”—The Guardian
“Funny from start to finish . . . Spending time with Professor Chandra feels like you’ve been in therapy, in a good way.”—Irish Times
“Funny, affecting . . . Chandra is a delightful creation: peevish, intolerant, intellectually exacting, unwittingly eccentric, nerdy, needy yet lovable. The book, like its picaresque hero, is a one-off.”—The Sunday Times
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I loved this beautiful, beautiful book. It’s tender and compassionate, it’s written with exquisite care and verve, and it’s so so so funny.
Searingly funny, uplifting, and wonderful… Professor Chandra is as unbending a curmudgeon as one could wish to find scowling from the pages of a novel.
I wanted to try something new when I chose this book – something out of my normal realm of chosen reads. I was initially drawn to the creative colorful cover, wondering what bliss could be found amongst the pages of this new book. Professor Chandra and his family are introduced to us before Professor Chandra is struck in a bicycle accident. He has barely missed being recognized as the latest Nobel prize winner and just seems to be stuck and unsure of his happiness at this late time of his life. Things seem to be stressed with his kids, his ex-wife has remarried, and at the suggestion of her husband and his doctor who hails from California, Professor Chandra decides to attend a seminar to see if he can find his bliss, his happiness. Never does he expect to find encounters with strangers to be so enlightening and eye opening. This well thought out book describes divorce, relationships between parents and kids, blended families, alternative ways of living, and so much more in a modern, relatable style. You’ll fall in love with Professor Chandra and his antics. There a great part of this story relating to cultural differences and how culture affects the way we are raised, both from our past and our present – I think it was a great picture of some of the difficulties faced and may be a great conversation starter and be quite thought provoking. I really enjoyed this and am happy I tried something new!
The ups and downs of life where no one is perfect!
A smart, funny, generous story about an eminent Indian economist who comes of age, finally, at seventy… comic and heartfelt, bracing and moving.
Professor Chandra, soon to be seventy, has once again not won the Pulitzer Prize in Economics. His career was built on theories now unpopular–as unpopular as the Professor himself!
His kids won’t talk with him, his ex married a male bimbo, his coworkers are sick of him. He has some nagging doubts about his whole life. Has he valued the wrong things?
Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss had me laughing out loud through the first half. Chandra’s struggles with the world and his family are presented with humor.
Chandra takes up the challenge of spending time “seeking his bliss” at Esalen. He takes in stride new experiences like meditation and nude hot tub conversations. He uses what he learns and tries to reconnect with his alienated children. All Chandra’s problems don’t disappear like magic, but what he learns and absorbs does bring him to a place where healing can begin to happen.
I enjoyed the novel and felt invested in Chandra and his family. But…Halfway through the book, I felt like there was a secret agenda. Like the author was proselytizing! Was the novel just one big sales pitch for a certain experience and lifestyle? The author, I discovered, practices Zen meditation.
Can we solve our issues with better self-talk, claiming responsibility for myself, opening up about my repressed feelings? Would spending time at a Zen monastery change our life? Do self-help gurus really help? Maybe. I mean, this is all very good advice. Maybe we all need a spiritual journey now and then. Reevaluate our goals and values.
So decide for yourself. If you are seeking a role model for change, Chandra might be your guy.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
There’s a long tradition of trying (and failing) to describe the spiritual search and the ineffable mystery without sounding like a pretentious snob or a sappy Pollyanna. Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss manages to pull it off. The book tackles perennially difficult and deep questions with humor and humanity, beautiful writing, and a page-turning story line. I gave myself over to Professor Chandra’s journey as he opens himself to self-examination, family healing, and a more courageous experience of being alive.
I had high hopes for Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss, but I was disappointed. What I thought would be a humorous, relatively light-hearted book was really a satire where author Ravjeev Balasubramanyam mocks American culture and perhaps empirically proves you can’t teach an old dog a new trick.
Chandra is not a lovable curmudgeon like those found in A Man Called Ove or The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper. He is self-centered and pompous. He alienated his wife and children with his singular focus on his aspirations for world recognition of his belief in his brilliance. His ex-wife, Jean, and their children aren’t any more likable. Steve—Jean’s new husband—is the tool through which author Balasubramanyam pokes fun of what he perceives to be modern America. While Steve and his compatriots at the Esalen Institute are accepting and somewhat likable characters, Chandra and his estranged family are a mess of judgment and self-absorption.
From the synopsis, I thought this book would be funny, but it wasn’t. I was looking forward to quirky characters and a madcap journey to enlightenment. Instead I got stiff characters and flat “adventures”. There were bits that were mildly amusing, but they didn’t really grabbed me. Chandra is too pedantic to ever find “his bliss”. Yet the author wants his readers to believe that a few days spent at Esalen in hot tub therapy leads his stereotypical main character to enlightenment. However, Chandra shows little in the way of epiphanic metamorphosis. The inadequate exploration of Chandra’s relationships with his offspring and their continuing discord was dissatisfying.
Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss shows off the author’s knowledge–or research–of the study of economics, and the book seemingly reflects the author’s view of Americans. It did present some meaty family issues, but the story fell flat in terms of addressing those familial conflicts. Perhaps that is more realistic, but it wasn’t particularly satisfying. Sadly, unsatisfying is probably the best descriptor for this book.
I was drawn to this book from the wonderful title. I also adore the book cover. Professor Chander, divorced from Jean, father of a son and two daughters, finds himself alone when he hears that he has not won the Nobel Prize yet again. He wonders if his life’s work in economics is not appreciated by his family or the world. Having been raised by a strict father that pushed Chander to achieve, that is all he knows. He shows his love for his wife and family by working himself to exhaustion. Even after the divorce, that is how he sees his world. To work constantly, to show that you care and to achieve, to prove to others and yourself that you are worthy.
I found the book not really about Professor Chander finding his bliss. It is more how a family tries to reconnect and be less dysfunctional. It was not the story I thought I would be reading.
The story started very slow. I was not truly interested until about page 100. I kept pushing through, thinking it would make a turn and be great at some point. Honestly, I never got to that point. I kept reading and it did get more interesting to me, but I never had that moment when I felt, this is the reason I chose to read this book.
The book was a bit highbrow for my tastes. Professor Chander is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge. He could chose how much or how little he wanted to teach. He chose to work endlessly, until an accident with a bike rider (as he was crossing a street) and a silent heart attack.
The story went on and on about economics, as the character of course would do in real life. It just was not in my taste for a book to read for pleasure. Also, the book had a very liberal undertone, speaking about world politics quite often and that also turned me off.
I think the writer plotted the book well. The story flowed well. The characters were well developed. I felt like I knew them by the time I finished the book. In saying that, I am giving this book 3 stars. While I enjoyed parts of the story, I did not enjoy probably half of it.
I would recommend this book to someone that enjoys reading about political views, economics, a family in disarray and an older person trying to find his meaning in life before it ends.
I won this book in a Goodreads.com giveaway. I want to thank them and the publisher, The Random House Publishing Group, for allowing me to read the ARC of the paperback, to be released on March 26, 2019.