Word: monke
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...does Frank's pandemic success mean that people will rush out and purchase a memoir by his younger brother Malachy, 66, specifically A Monk Swimming (Hyperion; 290 pages; $23.95)? This question is slightly less silly; Malachy's publisher has wagered a $600,000 advance to its novice author in hope that the answer will be a cash-register-ringing yes. And in his acknowledgments at the beginning of the book, Malachy thanks Frank "for opening the golden door." It's not hard to figure out what he means...
...since Frank's reputation is being used to lure prospective customers to Malachy's book, a perhaps churlish caveat emptor seems in order: A Monk Swimming is no Angela's Ashes. In fairness to Malachy, he never pretends to be writing anything remotely resembling his elder brother's book. But what he thinks he is doing instead on his pages never becomes particularly clear...
This insinuation is particularly strong in thelegend of the community's founding, which takes upa significant chunk of the novel's middle. Thefounder is the illegitimate son of an Irish monk,who raises the boy cloistered and influencedexclusively by the priestly life and thescriptures. When his father dies and the othermonks flee a famine, the boy is loosed upon thecountry. Having never encountered humans before,he viciously survives the hunger by murdering andcannibalizing those whom he has been taught inLatin to treat as Christ. He continues in similarfashion in Newfoundland, as a pirate terrorizingthe British Colony there until...
...Dalai Lama cooled toward Shugden is debated. Some cite the influence of the state oracle, a deity who speaks to Tibetan leaders through a monk in a trance state. Less exotically, the Shugdenites' purism hinders the High Lama's attempts to unify the Tibetan diaspora by reducing differences among its four main Buddhist schools. The Dalai Lama told TIME that he was worried about people's seeking "external help" from a protector spirit while neglecting Buddha's teaching of compassion and wisdom: "Some people worship toward [Shugden] almost equal with the Buddha. That's a disgrace...
Elaine: I'll save you a seat in Monk...