Bardo

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: An excellent specimen of gay spiritual fiction. The experimental technique works very well.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: For anyone who has read or heard about the Tibetan Book of the Dead (TBD), this book is a masterful workbook. After quoting from portions of the TBD, the author then writes a number of chapters that illustrate what one gay man dying of AIDS might encounter as he enters the Bardo. He takes the abstractions of the TBD and makes them real. Since all of the experiences in the Bardo are projections of the dying persons mind, these scenes have many aspects - some pleasant, some not. They are much like dreams. Some dreams are repeated with different endings. I found it a fascinating read.

Rating:
Summary: Tibetan Book of the Dead Workbook
Review: For anyone who has read or heard about the Tibetan Book of the Dead (TBD), this book is a masterful workbook. After quoting from portions of the TBD, the author then writes a number of chapters that illustrate what one gay man dying of AIDS might encounter as he enters the Bardo. He takes the abstractions of the TBD and makes them real. Since all of the experiences in the Bardo are projections of the dying persons mind, these scenes have many aspects - some pleasant, some not. They are much like dreams. Some dreams are repeated with different endings. I found it a fascinating read.

Rating:
Summary: A very unique voice and perspective
Review: Having been a hospice social worker for 8 years, I really thought the premise of this book was interesting. At the moment of his death, a man reflects back on the life he's led and imagines what might have been, before making that final transition. However, when I first started reading it, I almost decided to put it aside. DON'T DO IT!

Kraus' literary device, brief vignette's which have the main character's (E.G.'s) alter egos as third parties in the scene, took some getting used to. It is almost like listening to Shakespeare, it takes your ears awhile to adjust to it. Once I got a few pages into the story, however, the book really took off. And, I might add, parts of it are highly erotic.

I really appreciated the Buddhist perspective on life that E. G. shares throughout the book. Frankly, the only part of the book that did not ring true to me involved the sections where E. G. imagines being a leader for a gay paramilitary group. These passages were actually difficult to read, partly because of the sadistic nature of the characters and partly because they did not seem as true to the spirit of E. G.

I never read Mr. Kraus' previous book, "The President's Son", but I look forward to reading more from this very imaginative, and thought-provoking writer.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful writing
Review: Reading this book is a most unusual -- and rewarding -- experience. You enter the mind of the writer in a unique way...and what you get from it is a step-by-step meditation on the process of dying -- and living. "Bardo" is deeply-felt, and just as profoundly communicated. It is a powerful and generous book.