Breakfast with Buddha
Paperback version of the novel Breakfast with Buddha
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| Author | Roland Merullo |
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| Cover artist | Henry Sene Yee, John Shireman |
| Country | United States of America |
| Language | English |
| Genre |
Philosophical fiction Spiritual fiction |
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Publication date
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10/02/2007 (Hardcover) 08/26/2008 (Paperback) |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 336 (Paperback) |
| ISBN | (Hardcover) 9781565126169 (Paperback) |
Breakfast with Buddha is a 2007 spiritual fiction novel by American author Roland Merullo. According to this story, Otto Ringling, an editor of food books who lives in New York and a skeptic, reluctantly goes onto a road trip with Volya Rinpoche, a Siberian monk. This story, narrated in the first person by Otto, describes Otto's thoughts and beliefs, his conversations with the Rinpoche, and how he gains new perspectives on the world as well as his life, as a result of Volya Rinpoche's company.
This book was well received in general, with readers awarding it 4 stars out of 5 on average on the Barnes & Noble website and an average of 4.6 stars out of 5 on the Borders website. It was also well received by book reviewers.
A sequel, Lunch with Buddha, was released in Fall 2012.
The entire story is narrated in first person by Otto Ringling. Otto is a 44-year-old American who lives in a suburb of New York City and is a senior editor at a Manhattan publishing house which specializes in books on food. He has a wife named Jeannie, a daughter named Natasha and a son named Anthony. He also has a dog, Jasper.
The story starts at a point when Otto's parents have been killed in a car crash in North Dakota. Otto wants to go to North Dakota to settle the estate, mainly for sentimental reasons. He therefore plans to drive from New York to North Dakota with his sister, Cecilia.
Cecilia Ringling is a tarot and palm reader who lives in Paterson, New Jersey. She is fascinated by the spiritual and mystic aspects of life to such an extent that Otto looks down upon her and believes her to be "as flaky as a good spanakopita crust". When Otto reaches her place, he finds her with a spiritual guru named Volya Rinpoche. She declares her intent to let Rinpoche have her share so that he may build a meditation retreat there, and implores Otto to take Rinpoche instead of her, to their parents' North Dakota farmhouse. Otto agrees reluctantly.
During the road trip, Otto is quite uncomfortable with Rinpoche, but still tries to make conversation with him. Once, while the two are conversing, Rinpoche advises him to "get off the fast road". Otto interprets this as philosophical or spiritual advice and decides not to heed it, but realizes what Rinpoche actually meant when they encounter heavy traffic on the highway due to a car crash. At first, the cause for the roadblock is not certain, and Otto goes through his habitual temper tantrums with himself. But he learns about the car crash later and feels sheepish. Amidst all this, Rinpoche remains cool and calm (as in the rest of the book).
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