Submitted by Roseann Gabrys, Wyandotte, Michigan

You'll want to read this book because of the possibly guilty pleasures it will provide. Things you've done, things you've never done, things you wish you had done and, of course, all those things you wish you’d never done. You can't read about Luke Soloman's brush with life's landscape without examining some of your own experiences and therein lies the beauty. After all, the unexamined life is hardly worth living …

Julia Child said, "Life itself is the proper binge." In THE TOY BUDDHA Luke definitely explores the basis and bases (not to mention the baseness) of bingeing. As the BEGINNER'S LUKE Series continues in Book II, we find our hero searching for freedom, fun and females--not necessarily in that order and ordering up a plentiful portion of each. The first chapter sets the stage with a Bacchanalian Halloween celebration that gives Luke the opportunity to expand his mind with hallucinogenic drugs. If, as the plot proposes, we really are imagining it all, LSD is bound to put one's imagination in overdrive and the irony is not lost on Luke. His reason for being hinges on the idea of inventing his identity.

The mind is a deep subject and being allowed to probe its depths via voyeurism is a rare privilege. That's the best part of the book: getting a glimpse of the thoughts that make up the interior of another's mind and then realizing how familiar some of them are. We can relate. Early in the narrative Luke's heart is split in two. Who hasn't had to deal with that (a time or two)? Heartache is one of those lessons that if we don't learn we just keep repeating. At least suffering can make you very aware of being alive and it's the awareness we're chasing.

Luke is looking for a teacher and just like the axiom, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. This particular teacher doesn't appear in your ordinary places either. When he turns up, everything else turns up a notch. All the novel's settings are recalibrated and whatever is on the dial above "high" takes over as the story becomes a matter of life and death. The ride crests and then the downhill speed increases until Luke is going so fast he catches up with himself. It’s almost a detective thriller as Luke and his bud Billy lead us along looking for something we sense we're seeking even if we're not sure what it is or where to look. I won't spoil the Adventure for you; suffice to say Luke survives.

When the road rounds the final curve, we find ourselves like a rabbit running in a circle, right back where we started in Luke's little hometown. Rabbits remind me of ALICE IN WONDERLAND: "Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." That's what happens with this marvelous mystery.

As the sun sets in the west, and the dark night of the soul descends, the answers seem more elusive than ever. We can only take heart in the knowledge that the Adventure hasn't ended, this cliffhanging segment leaves us hopeful that the next installment, PORTRAITS OF AN IMAGINARY YOUNG MAN, will offer more clues and bring us closer to truth--the holy grail, the prize in the Cracker Jack box. Come on, man, don't abandon us now! It's just getting good …