Dinner with Buddha: A Novel

All three of the books Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner with Buddah are wonderful. Funny, poignant filled with life lessons. This last one includes a little more drama that the others, but all are so well written. Bravo Roland Merullo!

As usual Roland has written another outstanding book that once you start reading, it's very difficult to put down. I think it helps to have read his Breakfast with Buddha and Lunch with Buddha, but it's fine to read as a stand alone book too. I think his writing is appealing to both male and female audiences. I've read some of his other books too, and look forward to any future books he writes. His writing is so descriptive and that is what makes it so interesting. I guess I would give it a grade of more than 5 star.

Having devoured "Breakfast with Buddha" and "Lunch with Buddha," I had eagerly been awaiting the publication of "Dinner.'" I loved "Dinner" as much as the other two. Roland Merullo has the most inviting writing style, sense of humor, insight into people and life, a willingness to gently offer what it feels like to be open to change, and a humbleness that seems to beautifully show up in the characters of this book. These three books need not be read in order, yet I think you'd have more fun if you started with Breakfast, then Lunch, then Dinner. Bon appetite! You will be hungry for more from this wonderful author.

I loved Breakfast with Buddha, funny, inspiring and a good adventure. Lunch with Buddha fell short but as with most trilogies, I find the second one is often weak. So, I stayed with the series only to find Dinner with Buddha to be far below the first two. I'm not sure if this is personal journey, or apocalypse fiction. The result is an unsatisfactory mish-mash. The resolution wasn't - are we waiting for Midnight with Buddha? Overall, a disappointment. The road trip lacked the spontaneity, fun and humor of Breakfast with Buddha along with personal insights of the narrator and interesting people met along the way.

I am reluctant to call the series, Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner a trilogy because I am left wanting Desert, or, a Bedtime Snack and more!

This series draws upon the wonders of the external and internal road trips the characters take. I was satisfied with Breakfast, wanting more after Lunch, and now still ravenous after a full and delicious Dinner. The gentle way that "Rimp" guides Otto on one level while Otto leads Rimp on the other is intriguing. There is a gentle give and take between them that is influenced by CeCe who is only visible for a short while, as usual. As are Otto's two children and niece, all of whom flavor the story deliciously.

Roland, I am sure that I speak for many when I ask......"what's next for these two?."

This was a Reading Group selection by a fellow member. She had read the first two books in the series and this was her choice for her month. Apparently, Breakfast and Lunch were better books. I found this one to be too much.

Stopped reading around the 50% point. This book is plodding, predictable and in places BORING. So I opted out and began reading The Black Widow by Daniel Silva. THAT is a good book. I may return to Buddha, but I have other books on deck before I wade back in.

Breakfast with Buddha was good. Lunch with Buddha was better. Dinner with Buddha is the best. And, even if you have not read the first two it is still an excellent read. Although, it is more interesting character-wise having read the first two.

I loved "Breakfast" and it inspired me to buy Lunch and Dinner. Lunch was marginally entertaining, but not as good as Breakfast, and Dinner got kind of lame.

I think Roland should have quit with "Breakfast."

Roland Merullo does an exemplary job of painting a picture of small town America that leaves you feeling as though you have been there, or at least in many cases, would like to go. The story is told primarily through Otto Ringling, an average, middle class man who has tried to live a good life but is very much mainstream in his behaviors and beliefs. What I like most about his character is how very relatable he is. His concerns, questions and internal struggles are easy to understand and accept. It is this very reason that the lessons that Volya Rinpoche, a lovable, patient Siberian monk, have such an impact. I find myself completely agreeing with Otto's "logical" and emotional responses to the various situations woven throughout the book only to find my perception, like Otto's, is changed by Rinpoche's lessons. Some lessons are visual, some subtle, some not so subtle but all of them leave you with a vague sense of "Why didn't I see that before, it seems so obvious now." The lessons are timeless, spiritual but not espousing any particular religion, and stay with you long after the book is done. Highly recommend this book!

This is the third book featuring former food editor and sometimes cynic Otto Ringling and his eccentric brother-in-law, Volya Rinpoche. Over the course of the first two novels, Otto has slowly come to follow at least some of Rinpoche's teachings, including engaging in a daily meditation practice. But since the death of his beloved wife Jeannie two years ago, things have begun to slip for Otto. He plans what he expects to be a short summer visit to Ripoche, his sister Cecilia, his niece Shelsa, and his daughter Natasha his childhood home, now a meditation retreat run by Rinpoche. Based on his sister's visions, this so-called family vacation develops soon develops into yet another road trip with Rinpoche, this one confronting Otto with even greater challenges at this crossroads in his life.

I'm not sure quite what it is about author Roland Merullo's writing in this series that so draws me in. I admit that as a new yoga teacher and long-time practitioner, I am very open to the Buddhist-based philosophy espoused by Rinpoche, and in fact have been reading quite a bit in this area myself. But I think what I love most about these novels is the earnestness, the true sense of hopefulness that they project. I found this to be especially poignant while reading this third installment at time with so much violence and unrest going on in the world.

Throughout DINNER WITH BUDDHA, Merulla hints at "something big" to come for Otto. While the reader does get a significant preview of this by the end of the novel, this is by no means the conclusion to Otto and Rinpoche's story--so much so that I would suggest that a DESSERT WITH BUDDHA is virtually guaranteed. I would definitely recommend this series, and I won't hesitate to read any further chapters that Merullo offers.

In this final installment (so far, anyway) in Ronald Merullo's delightful Buddha series, Otto Ringling struggles to find meaning and purpose in his life. His days as a book editor are over, his wife has passed away, his children have grown and flown the coop, and he wallows in a stark, painful, overwhelming void. Cue in Volya Rinpoche, his buddhist guru and brother-in-law, who takes Otto on yet another road trip through the American heartland while teaching him to slow down, let go, stop worrying, and mindfully take in each stage, each day, each minute as it comes.

Through meditation, Otto seeks the deepest corners of his mind, where he glimpses a release from fear, an understanding of death, and vast, boundless love. Rinpoche helps Otto realize that once a stage in life is no longer fertile, it must be shed and left behind. As in the previous books of the series, Merullo takes us in an amusing and enlightening journey towards personal freedom and enlightenment.

Back in 2008, Roland Merullo's non-mainstream novel Breakfast with Buddha was published. A Buddhist-centric novel is a rarity. Our bright but befuddled, astute but misguided, amiable but earnest protagonist is Otto Ringling. He's Dakota-born but now very New York City, an editor at a publishing house. Unsettled by his parents' recent deaths, he begins questioning his comfortable life. Because of a sister's switcheroo, he ends up with her guru Volya Rinpoche as his riding buddy on a cross-country drive to his parents' home. Russian-born, Volya dresses in a red robe and, with his ESL and unpredictable sense of humor, is hard for Otto to take seriously. As Otto shows Volya backroads America in many beautifully-described scenes and scenery, Otto begins to understand Volya's wisdom and different way of looking at things. Otto, being as American as can be, fights for logic and practicality at every turn.

After the successful Breakfast with Buddha came Lunch with Buddha. Otto's life has had a catastrophe, and he and Volya once again travel together across the mountainous West. There's great food (Otto's also a food writer), water parks, transvestites, weed, and more. It's filled with amusing and again beautifully-described scenes, along with lessons for unmoored Otto. Otto can't resist trying to straighten Volya out, but that's like trying to straighten out a fluffy cloud.

Now we've got Dinner with Buddha, which ratchets up the series' ambition. This won't be the last book (Dessert with Buddha? Midnight Cocoa with Buddha?) Otto's life is in a ditch, with him embracing couch potatodom. Reluctantly, he agrees to more adventures with Volya and the two end up in . . . Las Vegas? Really? The Rinpoche loves to gamble, and is good at it - go figure. Their journey includes struggling Native Americans who bring some perspective, and a sad ex-NSA employee who vividly portrays American 21st century paranoia. The difficult scenarios they confront include an amusing convention of psychotherapists supremely annoyed at Volya's cavalier attitude. More may be at stake now, with threats from those opposed to the current Dalai Lama's influence and that of a potential successor. Somehow Shelsa, the 8-year-old daughter of Volya and Otto's sister Cecilia, is critical to what is happening. She may also be in danger. Otto, who is close to her, has to figure out what he can do to help.

Those who enjoyed Breakfast with Buddha are likely to enjoy the sequels, and those who haven't tried it may want to dip in and see whether the journeys of Otto and Volya, and the evolving story, draw them in. I've enjoyed every minute, and look forward to the next one.

I love this book. After thirty years on a spiritual path, this was a pleasurable way to be reminded of what is important and purposeful in life.
It's a thought provoking road-trip book about an ordinary man on a trek across the mid central states including Colorado and New Mexico with an enlightened monk. An East meets West journey of self-discovery with a combination of mysticism, questioning and eventually acceptance. Rolland Merullo is a remarkable writer who gifts you with small gems of a life-altering transformational ways of thinking. I listened to this audiobook. The narration of Otto and the monk was superb. I felt as if I was on the journey with them. This audio book is highly recommended.

At the time when I read “Breakfast with Buddha” I thought it could have been so much more both REALLY funny and enlightening, and I feel the same with “Dinner”. Because of the tragic events prior to book two, Otto still seems a bit forlorn which cast a shadow on the book. Also some of the classic Rinpoche talks from the previous books don’t seem as insightful here. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think it was a bad book, it’s well written and overall very insightful and always thought provoking, but I feel like it left me wanting more. A funnier Rinpoche, a happier Otto and a bit more on the adventure they seem to be leaving on at the end of the book.

This is an enchanting book, full of wisdom and humor. It can be read on many levels and the author, Roland Merullo, engages the issues of life that touch us all. It, like the two before it, Breakfast with Buddha and Lunch With Buddha, is hard to put down and the only regret is that it ends although the end is perfect. We need to encourage this author to write yet another book in the series, maybe desert with Buddha.

Beautifully written and a mind-altering reminder to accept all of life and all of yourself. A family that at first seems wackanoodle (almost but not quite wackadoodle) turns out to be precisely tuned into the true realities of living. Otto's slow evolution from a good man into a more enlightened soul is erratic and jerky, but always progressing.

What a mind-blowing book. It's not just a couple of crumbs for thought but a smorgasbord of overladen groaning tables. Dig in!

A completion of a trilogy celebrating the meeting of East and West, logic and mysticism, questioning and acceptance. Rolland Merullo is a remarkable writer, describing scenes deftly, with as much detail in the emotions of the characters as the American landscape that passes the car window on the journey. This book is a tribute to the spiritual quest. Well worth reading!

Where I live, the local bookmobile visits once a month. I like the fact that it's offerings are diverse and easy to access (not an overwhelming number). Last week during its monthly visit, on the shelf of new arrivals, was Dinner with Buddha. It jumped into my arms! I had no previous knowledge of this series or of this author. Wasn't I in for a treat! Each chapter "spoke" to me. Enlightenment delivered in small, palatable doses. I am 80 years old and still enjoying learning new ideas. Thanks, Roland Merullo. I learned a lot.

I had read both Breakfast and Lunch With Buddha and thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed pace and thoughts about life in general that I gleaned from them. Dinner with Buddha did not disappoint! Try it ; the change of pace will be worth it!