You Are Not Here and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction

by Keith Kachtick (Editor), Surya Das (Foreword)

The stories in You Are Not Here and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction dramatize the spirit of Buddhism, often with wit, always with verve, and each in some distinctly vivid way. Only a few of these stories touch on the Dharma explicitly and this book takes you on an inward tour across the whole world-to the jungles of Indonesia, a fog-shrouded park in San Francisco, the sun-blistered African veldt, a Burmese monastery surrounded by gun-fire, and the church-like sanctuary of a Nebraska barn, just to name a few. Collectively these stories paint a living portrait of the face of Buddhism, and readers may discover that that face is a strangely familiar one-and that every journey only ever leads home.

Edited by Keith Kachtick--the author of Hungry Ghost: A Novel (A New York Times Notable Book),You Are Not Here and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction--offers more surprising and transcendent work from some of fiction's famous names, alongside that of names you've never heard before--but surely will again:

Lama Surya Das, Keith Kachtick, Robert Olen Butler, Kate Wheeler, Anne Donovan, Samantha Schoech, Mary Yukari Waters, Andrew Foster Altschul, Jess Row, Anh Chi Pham, Sean Murphy, Pico Iyer, Dan Zigmond, Michele Martin, Sean Hoade, Jeff Davis, Jake Lorfing, Geshe Michael Roach, Anne Carolyn Klein, Dean Sluyter, Mark Salzman, and Hal Hallstein.

A good scent from a strange mountain / Robert Olen Butler
Ringworm / Kate Wheeler
Buddha Da / Anne donovan
The good people of Lake George / Samantha Schoech
Circling the hondo / Mary Yukari Waters
You are not here / Andrew Foster Altschul
For you / Jess Row
Mandala / Anh Chi Pham
The tale of THE / Sean Murphy
Abandon / Pico Iyer
Humans / Dan Zigmond
The later years of her life / Michele Martin
Samsara suite / Sean Hoade
Swallow koans / Jeff Davis
Distant mountains / Jake Lorfing
Meditation / Geshe Michael Roach
Dream of a former life / Anne Carolyn Klein
Nothing / Dean Sluyter
The laughing sutra / Mark Salzman
In search of the rainbow body / Hal Hallstein

Genres: Buddhism, Fiction, Short Stories, Spirituality

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 24, 2006

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

The radical notion of collecting Buddhist fiction presents a sort of koan: Is fiction the dharma? Is the dharma fiction? The stories in You Are Not Here, like most anthologies, are hit or miss. The hits are very good, and even the misses offer fine writing and a valuable response to the koan.

The first story, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler, concerns an elderly man from Vietnam now living in the US where his children and grandchildren have grown up. His family is still actively anticommunist, but he is being visited by the ghost of his old friend, Ho Chi Minh. There are direct Buddhist references in the narrative, but more importantly the story evokes the contemplative aesthetic.

Butler uses the sensation of smell, a sense that develops pre-language, in a narrative that exists only as language, mimeticly demonstrating the contemplative experience. Consciousness is not a thing but a process of experiencing. By describing the memory of smells in a kitchen, the fictive quality of the old man’s consciousness is highlighted. He smells sugar but it is a scent that has been gone for decade, it is a scent that is not there. By describing the smell as having “nothing to do with flowers”, the fictive quality of the reader’s consciousness is highlighted. What a reader, so moved by the story, actually smells is the process of consciousness, a scent that is not there.

Any story could be read with a contemplative interpretation, especially within the context of this anthology, but other readings are also possible. Ringworm by Kate Wheeler is explicitly Buddhist and almost entirely set in a Burmese monastery. The writer created a plot emblematic of capitalist realism and a narrator mired in its ideology. As this Guardian article points out, Western-style Buddhism’s palliative qualities might actually allow the suffering of modern life to continue. This approach sidesteps the destructive aspect of the Four Noble Truths, essential to the Buddha’s first teachings. At the conclusion of Ringworm the narrator has left the monastery and is having dinner with her father.

Of course, the wine and the dinner with the father are emblematic of Christianity but also of capitalism. The wine is French wine. The father is Republican. The narrator has returned from her exotic quest in strange lands to live in the heart of the empire, the real world, a world that is both unacceptable and necessary. As Mark Fisher would describe, the means by which the dinner restructures of her social reality back into her father’s world is contingent on the cynical distance provided by her contemplative attitude that enables the ideology of capitalism to function. Her experiences in the monastery have made her the ultimate cynic, allowing her to simultaneously disavow and consume.

www.jasonfmcdaniel.com

[Arthur Rosenfeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buddhist literature is a growing category and this is a good addition. Worth a read if the genre appeals.

[Ed Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

The foreword and introduction are great, but my rating only 2 of the 20 stories was 4/5 or 5/5. Most of the stories were so-so or too weird for me (even though I've appreciated Buddhism for 40 years).

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short stories with and underlying or overt Buddhist theme.

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed the vast majority of the 20 short stories. Would recommend :)

[Erin Keller · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a person who really likes short stories, I was surprised by how little I cared for these. Just did nothing for me.