An enchanting novel in which ordinary lives are illuminated with extraordinary charm.
Anne Donovan is outstanding.
A delightfully deadpan look at what happens when one family member decides that he's unlocked the secrets of the universe.
Quirky and endearing. Don't wait until your next life too read it.
Her deliciously corkscrewed tale flows with the sap of everyday life.
A beauty...the book had me engrossed to the end.
An engaging account . . . Buddha Da recalls the early stories of Roddy Doyle . . . it has just enough humour to make the family compelling, and some delicate touches of insight - usually from Anne-Marie - that raise it above a suburban comedy.
Donovan shows a great deal of skill for a first novelist, developing each point of view in turn but never failing to advance her narrative. Buddha Da is most satisfying emotionally, a mature novel in which the characters resolve their problems in a believable way. They seem very human folk who, with all good intentions, get themselves into a mess. That mess is very much like life.
— David Guy
The transcribed brogue and gag-rich premise initially lend Buddha Da a slapstick feel. But as Jimmy's engagement with Buddhism deepens, the novel matures into an astute exploration of Donovan's enormously appealing characters. (The language also becomes fluently readable and clearly indispensable to the book's flavor.) Chapters rotate between the first-person narratives of Anne Marie, Jimmy and Liz, his wife, and through these three perspectives, an intimate and comprehensive family portrait emerges.—Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow
Novels from current Scottish authors are assumed not only to be full of the kind of dialect that on screen would require subtitles, but also fraught with edgy violence, rage and angst. Donovan's delightful debut domestic comedy has the dialect all right (though it's very easy to follow after the first few pages) and a few darker undertones, but is essentially sunny and engaging. Jimmy is a Glasgow house painter, a genial giant of a man who seems happy in his marriage to Liz and in his musical teenage daughter, Anne Marie. But he yearns for something beyond the quotidian and finds it in the local Buddhist center, where he is soon spending much too much of his time, in the view of his wife and daughter, learning to meditate and hanging out with the "lamas." Soon he is separated from his family, while Anne Marie becomes involved with a Pakistani school friend in an all-absorbing music contest, and Liz falls into a flirtation that leads to a family crisis. Donovan's sense of the intimacies and pleasures of these small lives is acute; her ear for their talk, alternately tough and tender, is sharp; and she manages to make her little family at once likable and intensely vulnerable. American readers may be astonished to find how much, especially in terms of popular culture, they have in common with contemporary Glaswegians. (Apr.) Forecast: This may seem at first like a hard sell, but its very engaging characters and the universal nature of its family drama should please anyone in search of an absorbing and touching read. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, a tenderly funny and unpretentiously philosophical portrait of a Glasgow family in turmoil. Like her compatriot Irvine Welsh, Donovan writes in Scots dialect that gives marvelous savor to her story but is quite easy to read. Unlike Welsh's junkies and outcasts, her characters are ordinary working folks leading reasonable, responsible lives--until their own yearnings and fate's whimsical ways take them in unexpected directions. Things begin to go off kilter when Jimmy, a house painter in his 30s who until now has liked his "bevvy" and a practical joke as much as anything, begins spending more and more time at the local Buddhist Centre. His 12-year-old daughter Anne Marie is surprised but willing to tolerate his new religion, but wife Liz is bewildered and increasingly annoyed; she feels left out, and his involvement in Buddhism exacerbates Jimmy's tendency to leave all the housework and responsibilities to her. When he follows up forswearing alcohol with a unilateral decision to become celibate, Liz accuses him of having an affair, and he moves out. The novel's first (and better) half delineates with accuracy and wit people's complicated reactions to change. Though not especially intellectual or well-educated, Jimmy and Liz are both thoughtful and intelligent; his descriptions of practicing meditation and her reflections while cleaning out her dead mother's house are textbook examples of an author speaking in her characters' voices without condescending to them. Anne Marie is just as appealing as her parents, and the scenes of her burgeoning friendship with an Indian classmate offer nice snapshots of multicultural Britain. As the plotthickens-Liz gets pregnant, Anne Marie enters a BBC contest with a recording that combines a Latin hymn, Tibetan chants, and her friend singing in Punjabi-the story loses some of its freshness. But its charm remains, thanks to Donovan's deft way with Scottish speech and warm affection for her protagonists. Let's hope the funny spelling doesn't keep this engaging and accessible tale from the broad readership it deserves.
