A fascinating, readable fictionalized account of Buddha's life, conveniently broken into three sections: prince, monk, Buddha. We learn that Buddha's mission was to conquer fear and desire and live in total freedom - and that this was his calling from an early age. We learn that he gave up the life of prince and husband and father to live alone in the mountains - and survived an encounter with an enraged serial killer in the woods by simply walking away. We learn that Buddha avoided thinking in opposites like good and evil so he could live without judgment - and that he could walk through battles and with his presence and a few words, get all the soldiers to drop their weapons.

I'm drawn to studying Buddha precisely because he was a real person, precisely because he gave up everything to understand the true roots of suffering and then have compassion. The book held my interest in the parts of it where the Buddha wasn't performing miracles in order to move the plot along.

I'm sure the publisher required the author to keep the book to about 200 pages. Yet I probably would have read it more quickly had it been twice as long. Buddha as a human being living a long, varied and challenging life would have been more compelling.

Yet there was a lot to learn here, and "Buddha" would make a solid introductory primer for teens/college students or anyone who is interested in a belief system that has the potential to be ingrained into any of the world's faiths or non-faiths, to be a positive force in anyone's life to whatever degree they choose. The book has excellent (though again, too short) 'Epilogue' and 'The Art of Non-Doing' chapters in the back that explain many important aspects of Buddhism, including mindfulness and meditation.

The big point from the book is that Buddha was not afraid of death. Because he believed that human beings are continually reincarnated, the bigger challenges are overcoming desire, fear and judgment in order to be free and open. This whether death is near or, so far, avoided.