Abandon

Rating:
Summary: Challenge yourself!
Review: "The very nature of the investigation ... compels us to travel over a wide field of thought criss-cross in every direction. Thus this book is really only an album." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Iyer's new novel is a meditative work that challenges the reader to discover for him/herself the pattern that connects it all together. Form follows function. "The most interesting part of a story is the part we don't see at first, where all the clues are hidden."

Yes, Camilla is annoying, but she is supposed to be! More than that, Iyer has lured his audience ("the blondes in the back row") with Sufism, when his real subject lies elsewhere. If you open yourself to Iyer's unique vision, you might be surprised where it leads.

Iyer is a true "global soul" who projects the undercurrents of our times. Highly recommended to all poets and seekers.

Caveat: the dialogue between the lovers is too uneven to give this book 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Mind and Heart: Where they meet and where they don't
Review: ABANDON is a book difficult to classify. It is nearly a textbook about Rumi poetry and Sufism - one of the myriad Eastern forms of 'religion' to which we have little access. On the level of introducing a scholarly treatise about Islam, Muslims, and the selflessness of those religions as compared to the Western point of reference of the monotheistic, 'God as the Ruler of Creation' Christian religion author Pico Iyer succeeds valiantly. His writing is effervescent, wholly with the incensed atmosphere of the beauty of the Eastern religious mind. His knowledge of Rumi poetry is obviously rich and he shares that knowledge that makes this book an invaluable guide to understanding the differences that maintain a wall against understanding between the Middle Eastern countries and the United States - and as such the book could not be more timely!

Where this reader finds problems is the attempt to create a Romance novel that illustrates the mysticism of Sufism. Iyer writes very well, but his creation of Camilla Jensen, the love interest of the narrator John McMillan as he writes his dissertation on Rumi, is hardly successful. The character is a whining, dissociative, frightened creature who rarely assumes a countenance that would be able to attract ANYONE - inside or outside the novel. She is a selfconscious, chronically late, afraid little bore. Iyer paints some lovely encounters that have all the atmostphere to accompany a love song, but it is difficult to understand why he becomes so obsessed with her.

But despite the shortcomings as a romance novel, ABANDON is a book that deserves a wide audience for its introduction to Eastern religion in a format accessible to the American audience. And that is far more important than yet another mindless love story.........

Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: Abandon is a meditation on longing and solitude, the collision of the Old World and the New Age, the distinction between forced and voluntary exile, and the place the reader-less text (itself an exile) occupies in all of this.

The intrigues, globe-trotting and ruminations on language and religion are reminiscent of Don Delillo's The Names. If you liked that book, you will like Abandon too.

Rating:
Summary: Rumi in California
Review: Abandon is a novel that explores the results of mixing ancient mysticism with the rootless, multicultural modern world. This topic is also the subject of much of Pico Iyer's nonfiction, such as Video Night in Kathmandu and The Global Soul (I have read and highly recommend the latter). Iyer chooses Sufism, and the poet Rumi in particular to represent tradition in this somewhat dialectical novel. The opposing force, which consists of perpetual newness and impermanence is represented mainly by California, which Iyer sees almost mythically (as do many who arrive there from far away places). Abandon, of course, is (according to the cover) a romance, not a sociological treatise. However, in many respects, the romance takes a back seat to the more abstract questions which the book pursues. The rather star-crossed lovers of the novel are John Macmillan, an English graduate student living in California to study Sufism and Camilla, an enigmatic young woman who appears and disappears from John's life. Iyer makes a good choice in making Rumi John's specialty. For this Persian mystical poet is, according to the book, currently America's best selling poet; this is not hard to believe if you visit any large bookstore, not to mention any metaphysical or new age bookstore. This juxtapositioning of a mystical tradition that is steeped in introspection and mystery with modern mass culture is intrinsically bizarre, and Iyer takes this as his starting point for a rather bizarre love story. Camilla appears in John's life apparently at random, drawing him in with her contradictory need for and fear of intimacy. I have to confess that at times I found this part of the story annoying. John and Camilla repeat virtually the same scenes over and over many times; they become close then they part; they come together again and then quarrel for no good reason. Then they make up until Camilla becomes frightened again and leaves...Of course, many unhealthy relationships follow this kind of pattern. John and Camilla's interactions, however, are supposed to convey something much deeper than a mere dysfunctional relationship; I assume that John's ambivalent pursuit of Camilla is meant to mirror the Sufi's longing for God. Towards the end, this is actually illustrated quite nicely. The presentation of Sufism, the mystical sect of Islam, is also quite informative and interesting. There are numerous examples of Sufi poetry.There is also much international travel to places as diverse as Damascus, India, Paris and, finally to the heart of Sufism, Iran. John is lured to these places in search of ancient Sufi manuscripts which may or may not actually exist. All of this is fascinating, as are Iyer's ruminations on California as a place where people without roots seek new beginnings. What I most admired about this novel is what I perceived as a synthesis between the opposing forces of tradition and modernism (or postmodernism). At first, it seems that true Sufism is completely incompatible with modern life, and California in particular. John's adviser, for example, is a severe Iranian named Sefadhi who seems to embody the conservatism of ancient traditions like Islam. Yet John discovers something Sefadhi had written in his youth which reveals another side to the man. John similarly learns more about Camilla that makes her more understandable. The novel may be suggesting that the true spirit of Sufism (which can also be considered the search for God or wholeness, however you may define it) can be found anywhere and perhaps especially in those places where it is least expected.

Rating:
Summary: Challenge yourself!
Review: Again, as stated in previous reviews, I am a fan of Pico Iyer's travelogues. He is a master of putting the reader in the mood of the place...one is transported to all the venues that the main character, John Macmillan, visited -and it is lovely. The rest of the book's premises were irritating and contrived. I finished (with great difficulty) and wondered, "what did I miss?". Having heard reviews on NPR, etc. -I felt like I wasn't understanding something -but then felt perhaps other reviewers were reviewing Pico Iyer's attempt of explaining Sufism to an unknowing public - and not the story within the novel. The love interest, Camilla, is hopeless -the romance is unexplainable-the quest for papers and all the travel ensuing is always pointless-supporting characters are most interesting but used only as props - I suggest a rewrite -trash the romance and get on with it. The "twist" at the end is no surprise, only to the main character -and that added to more dislike because of his naivete. John Macmillan doesn't deserve a whole novel because of that very obtuseness illustrated at the end. Who edited this book? As I said earlier-very irritating reading.

Rating:
Summary: Great travelogue...was the rest written by the same author?!
Review: Again, as stated in previous reviews, I am a fan of Pico Iyer's travelogues. He is a master of putting the reader in the mood of the place...one is transported to all the venues that the main character, John Macmillan, visited -and it is lovely. The rest of the book's premises were irritating and contrived. I finished (with great difficulty) and wondered, "what did I miss?". Having heard reviews on NPR, etc. -I felt like I wasn't understanding something -but then felt perhaps other reviewers were reviewing Pico Iyer's attempt of explaining Sufism to an unknowing public - and not the story within the novel. The love interest, Camilla, is hopeless -the romance is unexplainable-the quest for papers and all the travel ensuing is always pointless-supporting characters are most interesting but used only as props - I suggest a rewrite -trash the romance and get on with it. The "twist" at the end is no surprise, only to the main character -and that added to more dislike because of his naivete. John Macmillan doesn't deserve a whole novel because of that very obtuseness illustrated at the end. Who edited this book? As I said earlier-very irritating reading.

Rating:
Summary: Yep, disappointing
Review: Great idea for a novel but it doesn't work. Not here, anyway. I like Iyer and wanted so hard to like this novel. Unfortunately, the characters are completely unsympathetic. Whatever it is that keeps bringing them together is never exerienced by the reader. Occasionally wants to be a mystery story--John gets home and finds out someone was on his computer earlier. Never worries about it again. Hmm. The various persons with manuscripts and what they may have known or not and how their narratives might have played out was the only thing that really captured my interest. But that would have been a different book. A more interesting one, I expect.

Rating:
Summary: After all the publicity - such a disappointment
Review: I had high hopes for this novel. I'd heard Iyer talking about this book on PBS, and I'd read some pretty favourable reviews, but on reading, I was kind of disappointed. As a love story, I just don't think it worked. Iyer's style is far too "piecy" and unstructured; we have pages of dialogue between Camilla and the main protagonist that don't really contribute to the story in any meaningful way. Most of the second half of the novel describes Camilla constantly popping in and out of his life! I didn't have a problem with her whining, I was just suprised she kept coming back!

On the positive side, I discovered a lot about Sufism and rumi, and I loved the descriptions of Tehran, and Santa Barbara. Iyer's expertise and experience as a travel writer really come to the forefront here. I would certainly read other books of his because he has such a profound and descriptive knowledge of other cultures, but as a writer of romance fiction I think he falls short.

Michael

Rating:
Summary: Abandoned hope
Review: I have read this author's writing since his first collection of essays, and before that unknowingly when he was a staff writer for Time. In the intervening years his life has become more interesting, and his writing has gotten worse. His strength as an essayist was a wide ranging voracious view of the world, and the occasional a-ha inspiring insight; then his beat became travel writing and patented "Iyeronies", the juxtapositions of the new "Global Village" with remote traditional societies, and kind people in terrible circumstances. During that phase he went almost everywhere on the planet. Now he has decided to put his talent to use as a novelist. Unfortunately he has an unfelicitous ear for dialogue, is not an acute observer of his surroundings, makes generally boring similes, composes dull poetry, the supposed mystery doesn't hold any interest, and his representation of scholars are charicatures in a setting that doesn't warrent that disregard, but the worst thing about this book is its two dimensional representation of the disasterous love interest Camilla. She is unbelievable, and irritating beyond enduring. The narrator is irritating too, doesn't tell us enough about his motivations for things, interprets everything with suspicion and in the unkindest light... As written this romance would never have happened. Make him more engaged and feeling, make her older and idiosynchratic instead of impossible, and you could have a sort of Harold and Maude set against international travel. No beginning writer should attempt to depict someone they no longer love in a romance. What's left are descriptions of travel to places which the disclaimer says he didn't go, and a lot of moaning about how moving Rumi's poetry is, and lectures on what you should know about Sufism. Enjoy Iyer's essays, read Rumi if that's your thing, but if you want to read a good book, look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Weak tea
Review: I heard the review on NPR and bought the book on the strength of it. I was predisposed to like this book but didn't. I share the views of the other reviewers that Camilla and McMillan have no grit as characters. As a reader, I couldn't care less what happens to her and never want to encounter her again. I kept thinking that if she weren't such a beauty, would our hero McMillan bother with such an irritatingly pathetic child. I don't know this writer's other work, but after reading this book, I feel he may have spent a little too long in California drinking weak herbal tea.