ARA Review by mtnlvr71 of Love is Like an Elephant

[mtnlvr71]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, Love is Like an Elephant.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Love is Like an Elephant, by Becky Walters
Review

A Quest for Meaning in Life

This novel is more than a comprehensive Sri Lanka travel book, it tells a story of a quest for meaning in life with an unexpected romantic bonus. Becky Walters is an amazing, single, middle-aged American lady who has traveled to places all over the world, all by herself, going so far as to drive her own car in non-English speaking foreign countries.

The author displays her sense of humor in the hilarious opening scene as she drives a rental car through the terrifying traffic of the capital city. Another funny scene, among others, is her first encounter with a “squatty-potty.”

I read this travel book on my Kindle and so I could not make out the details in the tiny pictures. It is possible that they would show up better in a print version. The Amazon "Look Inside" feature, which shows the first few pages, contained several larger pictures in color. Had I been able to see those on my Kindle, as the author and her young friend visited Buddhist temples, one after another, my enjoyment would have been enhanced. Instead I was forced to rely on the author, Becky Walters’, detailed descriptions.

And so, toward the end of the book, I was exhausted from "visiting" temples and quite relieved when the author and her “sweet” and very attractive Sri-Lankan male companion visited a beach and some romantic gardens. However, unlike a fiction love story, as a travel book based on actual experience, it does not have a contrived “happy” ending. The reader is simply not told the final outcome of the romance.

The book is an excellent description of the many Buddhist temples and other sites in Sri Lanka. But I found it to be much more. As readers, we become well acquainted with the author, her personality and a brief background of her life for the first fifty years. We learn about her rejection of her Catholic upbringing and her less-than-flattering attitude toward Christians. Having said that, she admits she is on a "... quest for manifestations of Buddhism, as a religion, while in Sri Lanka” … According to Walters, "... Sri Lanka … forced me to think about my depression and anxiety in a different way than my… travels throughout the West …"

Eastern philosophy and religion interested the author, even in high school. Buddhism seemed "daunting," nevertheless she set out on a quest to discover it, perhaps hoping it would be the answer to her "depression and anxiety" which had not been cured by her psychologist and "countless self-help books."

From a travel perspective, Walters has done a bang-up job of remembering myriad directions, details and names, presumably spelling them correctly. As I stumbled through the tongue-twisters, I found the language somewhat similar to Hawaiian in terms of the many syllables and inflections. A great many names and syllables end in "ah". For example panda Kadapahana, King Buwanekabahu, Pilmathalawa, Gadaladeniya, to name a few.

We learn, throughout the book, of the significance of the elephant to the Buddhist belief system. The author writes "Living and loving take work and strength--like an elephant.”

There were many small typos in the book which did not interrupt or change the meaning. The reader may ignore these. Four stars out of five.

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