This lovely little novel packs a much bigger punch than it's cover, blurb, or title would suggest. It does have the humor and lightheartedness that is implied, but there is some sneaky hidden gems in this one about life, family, self awareness, forgiveness and love. A wonderful book.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Dial Press, and Rajeev Balasubramanyam for the opportunity to read and review this book - I really liked it.

Professor Chandra is an economics professor at Cambridge and has just been passed over yet again for the Nobel Prize. He's divorced and his wife is remarried and living in Colorado with their youngest daughter. His oldest daughter doesn't speak to him or even allow the rest of the family to tell him where she is. Chandra has a somewhat contentious relationship with his son as well. When he has a bicycle accident and lands in the hospital, the doctor tells him he needs to take time off to rest. With that in mind, he decides to head to the US. There he is forced to confront himself and his life's decisions.

While there is some humor in this book, I think it could be best described as a coming-of-age novel for grown-ups, as you look back on your life and see your mistakes and hope it's not too late to make changes.

Noted economist, Professor Chandra, Charles, Chandrasekhar, Dad.

Chandra has spent his whole life single-mindedly pursuing success, and it isn’t until he is nearly 70 years old that he is forced to confront the question of what exactly that means. Divorced from his wife, unsuccessful in his quest for a Noble Prize, estranged from his children, and beginning to experience the health problems, he comes face to face with himself in new and uncomfortable ways.

Funny and at the same time poignant, Chandra’s path to enlightenment is heart-felt and a great deal of fun.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a book about an economics professor who tries to find the answer to what makes us happy. I really enjoyed this book although the end felt a tad rushed. I liked the professor even though he could be tedious at times. It was a good read.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

I read this because I was hoping for a lighter book. I routinely read so many books with heavy subject matter by choice, but I thought this would be a nice reprieve. While there is humor to be found here, it’s not what I would call a light read. There are some real issues to think about here - a broken family, a sad lonely man who has put himself and his career before his family and now feels like a failure in his career as well. I’m an outlier here since there are so many 4 and 5 star reviews. I can’t say I loved this story. The main theme - a older man reaches a point in his life where he does some soul searching and has regrets about the man he has been and is seeking to change and perhaps redeem himself for all of the things that he didn’t give his family. I didn’t find it to be original as there are so many stories covering the regrets people feel later in life about lost chances.

While there were times when I felt sorry for Professor Chandra, I didn’t like him very much. He tries to figure out how he has failed with his children. Truth be known, they weren’t perfect and I didn’t like them very much either. Chandra has an accident which is the impetus for him to begin thinking about his life. He ends up attending a retreat at the recommendation of his ex wife’s husband called “Being Yourself in the Summer Solstice”. The group sessions where you bare your soul and get advice from others who are having issues of their own and where you actually bare your body sitting naked in the hot tubs having discussions felt contrived . He leaves after three days and is enlightened, but this self-help meditation, group thing just didn’t work for me. As I said, even though the story didn’t feel new to me, there are some real family issues that a lot of readers will relate to. You should read the 4 and 5 star reviews.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House/The Dial Press through NetGalley.

Professor P. R. Chandrasekhar is the foremost trade economist in the world. At age 70, he is at the top of the academic ranks at Cambridge. Yet, Chandra is not happy, no pep in his step. Hit by one of the many bicyclists on campus has made his unhappy life even worse. The topper to all this is absolute surety that this is his year for the Nobel Prize. When the news came from his daughter, Jasmine, that he does not win the prize again, he folds.

Chandra receives a rebuke from The Master over the many complaints from students. He is not a benevolent, father figure to any of them and seems them as idiots, sometimes using those words. The Master tells him he must take a semester off and recommends that he go to California.

The adventure begins with an offer to teach at UC Bella Vista in California. He visits with his ex-wife, Jean, who calls him Charles and her husband a child psychologist who calls Chandra, Chandrasekhar. Chandra's three children Jasmine, Sunny, and Radha are at various stages of developing their adult lives. It seems that this book is about Chandra finding his own life after working on nothing else but his economic theories.

I enjoyed this family novel and found myself believing that it may not ever be too old to change and give and get forgiveness from one's family.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. Thank you to both.

Good recommendation for an easy book club read. The story was good for the first 75%, however, the ending felt quite contrived with epiphanies coming out of the blue and behaviors that seemed a waste of the first 75%. All in all, an enjoyable read, but somewhat frustrating at the end.

Opinionated and self-important 69-year old professor Chandra, a Nobel prize nominee (who loses yet again) is told to take a sabbatical from his university for calling a student an ‘imbecile’. Estranged from his family, spiraling downward, and recovering from a silent heart attack, his doctor advises Chandra to take it easy and chill for two months. “You gotta follow your bliss, man. That’s all there is to it”, he advises. So Chandra sets off on a journey to do just that, enrolling at a retreat center to find his bliss. Can he unlock his spirit, refresh and rebuild relationships and find happiness? A slow yet satisfying unconventional odyssey that teaches some lessons about transformation and restoring optimism.

*will post in online venues closer to publication and submit links at that time..

In my current ebook library full of psychological thrillers, this one was a refreshing change. Everything about this book says slow down, take a moment to enjoy things in your life. Just as Chandra is faced with taking a few steps back from his career to reflect upon things, the pacing of this book requires readers to slow down to reflect upon things as well. This isn't a book to speed through; it's a book to enjoy slowly and maybe, just maybe, contemplate some of the questions Chandra is also facing regarding career, family, and what it really is that makes you happy.

In 2016 Professor Chandrasekhar was expected by almost everyone to win the Nobel Prize in Economics for his widely publicized theories. When he did not win, he was very disappointed. So this native of South Asia took a bike ride in Cambridge, England, where he worked as a Professor Emeritus and held an endowed chair at one of the colleges. Unfortunately the bike ride ended with an accident. At the hospital Dr.Chandra learned that he had suffered a silent heart attack as well as cuts and bruises. His doctor prescribed a period of rest for Dr.Chandra.

So he went to California where his ex-wife, Jean, lived with her new husband, Steve, and Chandra’s youngest child, Jasmine. Steve was a laid back psychologist and realized that Chandra was an angry man. So he offered to send Chandra to Esalen, the retreat center at Big Sur, to find himself. The first time Chandra met the folks he would be spending the week with, they were all nude and he was in his bathing suit.

Initially Dr. Chandra was resistant to the exercises in self awareness. Eventually he accepted that the problems he had with his ex-wife and three children had to do with his emotional detachment as well as the fact that he was a giant in his field and that it was hard for his children to measure up.

When he left the retreat, he tried to repair all the frayed relationships.

I enjoyed the book and felt that the author heartily endorsed New Age retreats like Esalen.

I'm a sucker for books about cranky individuals, curmudgeons, grumpy souls, if you will. Maybe I feel a kindred spirit. Professor Chandra is a professor emeritus in economics at Cambridge. He's just been passed over for the Novel Prize for the umpteenth time. His life is falling apart. He's wondering whether his life has any meaning. His wife divorced him three years ago and moved to Colorado. He has major differences with two of his three children. After he is injured in an accident it is strongly suggested he take a sabbatical. He heads to the US to see his youngest daughter.
Because of the title, I was expecting a humorous book. And there is some humor. But in truth, this is a heartfelt novel about losing and finding family, about the mistakes parents make with their children and how hard it can be to let them be themselves.
The characters are fully formed. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, though it takes them a while to willingly show their weaknesses. Even those that could be painted a clichés are given redeeming traits.
While this wasn't what I expected, I truly enjoyed it. Curmudgeon that I am, it took me by surprise that the author didn't make a stay at Esalen into a punch line.
My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

This book is a slow moving, character driven, family drama. There is no action, twist and turns, so for all the thriller/suspense/mystery book lovers this may be a monotonous read. But there is a really good message that I have taken away from this book: that no matter how busy and ambitious we are in our lives, we always need to take time for our loved ones. We really need to hear them out, and try to understand their ways, because if we don’t, one day we may find ourselves very much alone.

Professor Chandra is a 69-year old economics professor at Cambridge. He is a workaholic and he has no time for his family. His wife left him for another man and his children barely talk to him. In fact, he’s been estranged from his older daughter for years. He is judgmental, controlling, and he constantly argues with his kids. But then one day an accident happens, and Professor Chandra realizes that perhaps he is the problem and not his kids, and maybe he’s the one that needs to make some changes in his life to regain the love and respect of his children.

I wanted to quit reading this novel at 20%. I could not connect with Professor Chandra's character and his story. He is not a likable character, and his eccentric and arrogant personality was getting on my nerves. I did not like the way he treated his children and I was put-off by his narrow-minded thinking. But then I though, why not give him a chance to redeem himself? And good thing I did, because at the end of the story I really enjoyed Professor Chandra’s character, and now I have a special spot for him in my heart :)

Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing, and the author, Rajeev Balasubramanyam, for giving me an opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

A story of difficult family relationships and the way one man tried to fix them. This is a journey of self discovery, not a easy journey but a courageous one.

I loved the general idea of this novel and was quite stoked to read it. Unfortunately I found it to be quite a slow read and a little bit boring. The humor became too easy and the plot was maybe more simple than it needed to be. Nothing really propelled Chandra forward. All in all, I found it a pleasant read, I guess I was just looking at it to be different than it was.

Chandra is a 69 year old economics professor at Cambridge.
He’s been shortlisted for the Nobel Prize several times and his most recent failure to be selected is weighing on him. Other sources of stress are his divorce from ex wife Jean and separation from his children. Seventeen year old Jasmine lives with her mother and step father in Boulder, Colorado. Her older brother Sunny owns a successful business institute in Hong Kong based on the concept of “capitalist mysticism” (basically greed is good and you can get whatever you want through positive thinking). Eldest daughter Radha is an activist who has been estranged from her father for the last two years. Since his divorce Chandra sees himself as “...an Indian Miss Havisham with an Emeritus Professorship and a takeaway menu.” After a health scare, he is advised by his doctor to take some time off and follow his bliss, so he heads for the warm climate of Los Angeles for a sabbatical.

I thought Chandra was a great character, pompous and arrogant but also loving and insecure. There was a little too much navel gazing in this book for me, but I enjoyed reading about Chandra’s search for self knowledge. Although every conversation Chandra had with his ex wife or children seemed to be fraught, the book also had a lot of wit and sharp observations. There is no way I could not love a book that refers to Trump as “the oaf who wouldn’t know a demand curve if it wrapped itself around his pizza-laden stomach“. I liked the author’s writing style and would be happy to read more by him.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

I really wanted to love this book, and I thought I would, but I just didn’t. ProfessorChandra was fairly unlikeable, and I could not develop sympathy, let alone empathy, for him. Could not continue more than halfway.

Rajeev Balasubramanyam's Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss made me think of Mary Oliver's famous poetic line: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" The premise of the book is somewhat straightforward: after having a near-death experience, Professor Chandra must take stock of his life and his relationships, especially with his three children. It's a novel about the choices you make and what makes a life. It's thought-provoking and wry. It's a book lover's novel. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House, and Rajeev Balasubramanyam for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. The publication date for this novel is March 26, 2019.

I would call this a coming of age novel. Of course, the age the protagonist is coming of is 70. Professor Chandra is a world renowned economist who did NOT win the Nobel Prize. This nonoccurence, combined with being hit by a bicycle and having a (silent) heart attack causes him to reevaluate what's left in his life. His ex-wife is living in Colorado with her new husband and Chandra's younger daughter, he hasn't spoken to his elder daughter in years, and he has a stressful relationship with his son (who lives on another continent, [as does his ex-wife and and younger daughter]). Thus begins his sojourn in Ensalen and a Zen Center in Colorado as he discovers and follows his bliss.

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss is a family drama book centering on the crotchety Professor Chandra. He is a man turning 70 who has set beliefs about the world and often disagrees with his children on how things really are. Throughout the book, he attempts transformative experiences to try to find a new path and better connect with his family. It's a redemption story that can be a bit predictable, but an easy read none the less.

P. R. Chandrasekhar, a professor of economics at University of Cambridge, is at the top of his profession. A specialist in international trade theory nearing his seventieth birthday, Chandra is widely published and has even been touted for the Nobel Prize. He really hopes to receive that medal, if for no other reason than it will help justify the mess he has made in virtually every other aspect of his life. His colleagues do not really like him, his wife has left him for another man, and he has become estranged from his three children, one of whom refuses to talk to him. When he suffers an accident-induced heart attack shortly after getting passed over for the award, Chandra embarks on a quasi-spiritual journey to repair his relationships and make amends for a lifetime of selfish acts. Will that quest yield the results he hopes for?

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss takes readers along on the professor’s ride, even if we find that his problems are only partly resolved by the end of the book. Nevertheless, the author has done an excellent job of developing Chandra as a fully realized character who is genuinely trying for his own coming-of-age experience, no matter how late in his life it might occur. Indeed, there is plenty of insight and gentle humor involved in the story of how Chandra gradually realizes the adverse effect that his bullying personality has had on those he loves and how he sets out to rectify the situation. If I had a problem with the novel—and I am not sure that “problem” is exactly the right word—it is the way in which the professor attains his enlightenment.

In particular, after a highly contrived confrontation with his ex-wife’s new spouse, Chandra is coerced to spend a couple of days at Esalen Institute in Big Sur attending a seminar called ‘Being Yourself in the Summer Solstice’. Here, he learns the rudiments of meditation as well as how to recognize the “critical voices” that have dictated behavior throughout his life. This leads to an implausible connection to a Zen monastery in the Colorado mountains where the family’s healing, such as it is, ultimately takes place. All of this is a little too convenient, but, as revealed in the book’s Acknowledgments, it is clearly the agenda that the author wants to promote. Unfortunately, the notion of meditation and Zen philosophy as the solution to a lifetime of problems felt a little “new age-y” to me, but circa the 1970s rather than something closer to the present day. So, while I did enjoy aspects of the novel, it was not an unmitigated success.