This book is written by one of our fellow Bay Area residents 
who faces many of the same pressures surrounding lives of 
people like us. One day his mid-life crisis caught up with him 
and he decided he wanted to quit the get-ahead game. He then 
quit his job, sold his house and belongings, yanked his kids 
from school and went on a world tour for a year. The 
resulting book is a documentary about him and his family's 
travel through that one year. At the end, he shows us his new 
life after that drastic year break, as well as what formed 
his strongest recollection of it. 

I love this book partly because I admire his courage and 
resolution, but to a larger part because it is a well 
written one. It is humorous, many uncanny observations, 
diary of travel experience which we yearn to have ourselves, 
a lot of family interactions that we can well relate to. 
I don't think I can describe his trip to you as well as he 
does. You just have to trust my words for it is good. Here 
is a run down of the countries he visited: Costa Rica, 
France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Switzerland, Botswana, 
Zimbabwe, South Africa, India, Thailand, Australia, 
Cambodia, Laos and Hong Kong. He has a web site if you are 
interested: www.oneyearoff.com. 
Don't miss it! 
 

Title: The Unbearable Lightness of Being  
Author: Milan Kundera; translated from Czech by Michael Henry Heim  
Publisher: HarperPerennial  
Reviewed by: Patrick Wong 

You probably have at least heard about this title before 
already. It has a companion movie which in my opinion no way 
comes close in comparison to how good this book is. 
It is a rather literary book which style of writing is 
refreshing. And its subject is dealing with a love story and 
how the 'lightness' and 'heavy' aspects of existence affects 
it. You might need me to explain what is 'lightness' and 
'heavy' here. 

Basically, events never repeat so that it is in 
transitory nature is light; events that are going to take on 
eternal repetition is heavy. Therefore 'light' events are 
ephemeral and inconsequential, while the most trivial 
'heavy' events will crush us under its weight. In love, we 
long to be weighed down. That heaviness of burden is an 
image of life's most intense fulfillment. Because our 
existence in this world is 'light',  this becomes the 
conflict with love. 

Tomas and Tereza are the lovers in the story. Although 
Tomas' love towards Tereza is 'heavy', he cannot stop 
himself from taking numerous 'light' sexual encounters. 
While Tereza knows what is going on with Tomas. She is 
unwilling to accuse Tomas because after all how can she 
accuse something that is ephemeral. She is not facing up to 
her true feeling. Along these lines, the life and love story 
of Tomas and Tereza develops. 

Although it is a love story, I believe the true message in 
the novel is about the cruelty of the fortuity and transient 
nature of our existence while there is an eagerness for 
eternity. 
 
 

Title: When Bad Things Happen To Good People  
Author: Harold S. Kushner  
Publisher: G.K. Hall  
Reviewed by: Patrick Wong  

This is a book written many years ago by a rabbi, Harold 
Kushner, who subsequently wrote many more best sellers. So I 
am sure he must be a famous guy and you might already have 
heard about him or read his books. 

In this book he led us through the question, "Can we make 
sense out of tragedies when bad things happen to good people 
through the religious context?" He is a rabbi, so of course 
his research is through Old Testament. He found his answer 
mainly through Genesis and the Book of Job. 

I am not sure his point of view is mainstream nor well 
accepted by the religious community. But for me, it is such 
a powerful spiritual uplift that I can feel it is going to 
carry me through the darkest moments of my situation. It is 
such a powerful yet relatively short book that I really hope 
everyone can spend a little bit time reading about it and 
see whether you gain anything from it. 

Finally the answer to the question, "No, We just have to 
acknowledge the senselessness of the tragedies and our 
courage to live on."