Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence - Hardcover

Guy, David

3.78

124 ratings by Goodreads

9781590304334: Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590304330 ISBN 13: 9781590304334

Publisher: Shambhala Publications Inc, 2007

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Jake is a Zen master and expert bicycle repairman who fixes flats and teaches meditation out of a shop in Bar Harbor, Maine. Hank is his long-time student. The aging Jake hopes that Hank will take over teaching for him. But the commitment-phobic Hank doesn’t feel up to the job, and Jake is beginning to exhibit behavior that looks suspiciously like Alzheimer’s disease. Is a guy with as many “issues” as Hank even capable of being a Zen teacher? And are those paradoxical things Jake keeps doing some kind of koan-like wisdom . . . or just dementia?

These and other hard questions confront Hank, Jake, and the colorful cast of characters they meet during a week-long trip to the funky neighborhood of Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As they trek back and forth from bar to restaurant to YMCA to Zen Center to doughnut shop, answers arise—in the usual unexpected ways.

Click here to listen to the author, David Guy, discuss Jake Fades on North Carolina Public Radio.

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Review:

"Longtime Buddhist practitioner Guy explores the Zen zone in this low-key tale of meditation, mentoring, and mouth-watering baked goods."--Booklist

"The Buddhist lessons of impermanence and letting go are folded into a contemporary urban story of drifters and their teachers in this sweet novel. . . . The conversational first-person narration draws the reader in, as does the eminently likable Jake."--Kirkus Reviews

"Guy conveys through Hank's koanlike interior commentary and Jake's dialogue, the subtleties of Zen practice. Readers into the dharma will find this novel worthwhile."--Publishers Weekly

"In the frolicsome, playful novel about Zen Buddhism, death, and sexuality, [Guy] beautifully conveys the impermanence of life. . . . Jake Fades gives sex and death the respect they deserve."--Spirituality & Practice

"Jake Fades is a book written with an uncommon clarity: a story by a real storyteller. Like all good books, it's about many things: Buddhism--sure, that's there--but it's also about the families we're born into and the families we make for ourselves. Sit. Read."--Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish and The Watermelon King

"A wonderfully entertaining and admirably down-to-earth story about Zen, beer, sex, and real people in real life--not the make-believe Zen of your dreams."--David Chadwick, author of Crooked Cucumber and Thank You and OK!

Synopsis:

Jake is an American Zen master, making a living as a bicycle repairman, dispensing Buddhist wisdom and fixing flat tyres in Bar Harbor, Maine. Hank, the narrator, has been his loyal student for almost twenty years. Madeline, another of Jake's students, and his main source of funding, has invited Jake down to Cambridge Mass, to lead a meditation weekend, and to discuss the possibility of setting up a permanent school. However, Jake has been experiencing fugue-like states more and more these days, forgetting what he's doing, where he is, and sometimes even who he is. Neither of his students wants to face the unpleasant reality that Jake may very likely have Alzheimer's. Throw into the mix that Hank and Madeline had a short and stormy affair a couple of decades ago, and now can barely tolerate each other. Jake figures that he'll pass the mantle of "teacher" on to Hank before he loses more of his mind, but Madeline doesn't think Hank is teacher-material, and certainly wouldn't foot the bill for a school with Hank at the helm instead of Jake. Hank also seriously distrusts whether he has what it takes to be a teacher, for a whole host of reasons.

We follow these characters, and others, over a few short days, during which we learn the arc of their lives, loves, regrets, and hopes.

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