Karma for Beginners

August 3, 2009
Blank (Almost Home) pens a second tale involving drug abuse, absentee parenting and neglected teens flouting authority. As in her debut, she sets her sights on a fringe community-this time, a hippie cult-and catalogs life there, with mixed results. Many of her descriptions of communal life border on the cliché: waifish, beatific followers in flowing skirts and white robes, chanting sessions, daily seva ("selfless service," aka chores), a lecherous TV-watching guru, and touchy-feely mantras about surrendering desires and "Purity of Being." But 14-year-old Tessa's flight from her mother, who is desperate for a spiritual makeover, despite Tessa's misery on the commune, and into the willing arms of Colin, a 20-year-old who fixes broken VW buses on the ashram, strikes a nerve. While Tessa's clandestine relationship may initially seem deliciously rebellious and romantic to some, things quickly spiral out of control, both for Tessa and her mother, whose sexual connection to the guru is revealed. Eventually, wayward mother and daughter reunite, but not before unfortunate (and implausibly wrapped-up) lessons are learned on both ends. Ages 13-up.

November 1, 2009
Gr 9 Up-It's 1987 and Tessa's mother takes her out of ninth grade in Ohio to live at an ashram in the Catskills. Once there, Sarah leaves her daughter alone most of the time and begins staying overnight "in service" to the ostensibly celibate guru. The 15-year-old and 20-year-old Colin, a townie who fixes the ashram's fleet of VW buses, become friends, and then lovers. All the while what Tessa really wants is her mother to act like one. Blank's take on selfishness disguised as spiritual journey is deep and detailed. Tessa's arguments with Sarah will resonate with teens; Sarah gets calmer and more condescending as Tessa gets angrier and louder. Colin is well drawn and appropriately fallible, and his romance with Tessa is sincere and frustrating as it veers into a drug-induced haze and the authorities get involved. Blank's writing is fluid and readable, and the well-paced story is told with humor and empathy. The plot moves steadily toward a frenzied but believable climax, but Sarah's final turnaround is hard to swallow. While readers will sympathize with Tessa's situation, they, too, will long for a responsible adult to surface and put an end to all of the bad behavior."Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library"

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