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Hard Travel to Sacred Places | 
 enlarge | Author: Rudolph Wurlitzer
Publisher: Shambhala
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy Used: $0.83
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Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 625980
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 172
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 1570621179
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.9
EAN: 9781570621178
ASIN: 1570621179
Publication Date: September 11, 1995
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Product Description
Hard Travel to Sacred Places is the record of a personal odyssey through Southeast Asia, an external and internal journey through grief and the painful realities of a decadent age. Wurlitzer?novelist, screenwriter, and Buddhist practitioner?travels with his wife, photographer Lynn Davis, on a photo assignment to the sacred sites of Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia. Heavy Westernization, sex clubs, aging hippies and expatriates, and political dissidents provide a vivid contrast to the peace that Wurlitzer and Davis seek, still reeling from the death of their son in a car accident. As Davis with her camera searches for a thread of meaning among the artifacts and relics of a more enlightened age, Wurlitzer grasps at the wisdom of the Buddhist teachings in an effort to assuage his grief. His journal chronicles the survival of age-old truths in a world gone mad.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Probably the worst book I have ever read. October 23, 2005
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
The author wallows in self pity and is always sick while staying in the best possible hotels (and never fails to drop the names of famous people who have done likewise). Having visited the same sites in Thailand and Cambodia in good health and a tight budget, I am appalled that this experience could be reported in such a distorted and negative way. Only a perverse curiosity about if the book could get worse kept me reading. It did get worse.
 Hard Travel to Sacred Places September 2, 2005
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
service was excellent and book was in condition described
Profound and moving. September 27, 2004
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I couldn't differ more with the review by T. Gilbert! Sure this book is self-absorbed - but as the author journeys into himself he finds a universal suffrage. The author's courage to face off against death is remarkable in these times of flippancy and shallow know-it-all attitudes. The author is a wonderful guide through the darkness - and to be admired. There's nothing at all sophomoric that I could find in the book, nothing. It's as serious as it gets. The way that the author divides up the journey into a lusting/ignoring/hating triad of suffering is as an intuitive an expression of Buddhism as I have ever come across in my studies. Perhaps "every one has experienced loss in their life"; but few of us dare to share the accompanying humiliation with each other, or ourselves. Thank you Mr. Wurlitzer!I also suggest Inside Thai Society: Religion, Everyday Life, Change by Niels Mulder and Bali, Sekala and Niskala: Essays on Religion, Ritual, and Art by Fred B. Eiseman for an exploration of how Buddhism can help guide us over, around, and under the many hurdles in life.
 Dark, moody, but interesting and memorable February 12, 2004
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I read this because I liked the title, and thought the idea of the book - travelnig to a powerful place during a difficult time in life - was promising. The book turned out to be darker than I expected - but it was still moving and memorable. I read this book years ago but still recall passages and ideas from it. I think if I went to Cambodia or other places mentioned, I'd reread this short book - just to help give me a deep emotional context to consider while I'm there. Good - easy to read - but it might stay with you.
Dreadful December 10, 2003
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
The Publishers Weekly review in my opinion says it all. The book is well and accurately characterised as pretenious, sophomoric and self-absorbed. Every one has experienced loss in their life. Little useful, sustaining or enlightening will be learned from this book. A big disappointment
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