A Bliss Case

Michael Aaron Rockland (Swami? )
English
Coffee House Press, USA, 1989 – ISBN 978-0918273550
English professor turns New Age guru – and about Rajneeshpuram.

English professor turns New Age guru. A New York Times notable book for 1989. "Rockland...scores a hit with this smoothly written first novel, which has a serious message about the virtues of selfishness. This reviewer hasn't laughed so hard since Josh Greenfield and Paul Mazursky's Harry and Tonto."--Booklist

From Publishers Weekly

Middle-aged Sidney Kantor, a tenured professor of English in New Jersey, abandons his family, friends and career to enter a flourishing religious cult in India. However, Kantor (aka Anudaba) remains offstage; his escapades are relayed by the testimonies of his long-suffering Jewish mother ("A mother doesn't raise a child to see him prostrated on the floor in front of King Tut"), his ex-wife ("He loved flowers and he loved people and he loved God. He just didn't love me"), his daughter (who joins him at his ashram) and an envious former colleague (who, gay, is secretly in love with Kantor). Although interpretations of Kantor's behavior vary widely, each offers apparently valid insights and expands Rockland's premise that an individual's deepest desires and motives are mysteries to himself and to others. This first novel is distinguished by its unblinking scrutiny of both the suburban culture that Kantor rejects and the cult that claims him, as Rockland shuns easy stereotyping in favor of keenly witty and original satire.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A popular, middle-aged English professor (proclaimed "Sidney Kantor, Superstar" in student graffiti) is driven by unresolved yearnings to abandon his job and family in New Jersey and join a religious commune in India. We see our hero's humorous adventures through the eyes of his cynical mother, a Rutger's colleague, his long-suffering wife, and, finally, his worshipful daughter. Meanwhile, his Rajneesh-style ashram ends up taking over a ranch in the Oregon wilderness. Author Rockland, a veteran nonfiction writer and filmmaker, scores a hit with this smoothly written first novel, which has a serious message about the virtues of selfishness. This reviewer hasn't laughed so hard since Josh Greenfield and Paul Mazursky's Harry and Tonto (LJ 5/15/74).
- Joyce Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.