Professor P.R. Chandrasekhar has once again lost the 2016 Nobel Prize and he succumbs to thinking this is his defining moment. He has planned the party, the speech, the interviews, he takes a nap, he wakes up, he has not won. Professor Chandra has worked hard his whole life, actually work is all he knows. He is an elitist who believes in his work and his rightness. He sometimes wonders if his life’s work being the world’s foremost trade economist isn’t “a giant con”. He has a son, two daughters and an ex-wife who have all taken a back seat to his work in economics and yet he believes that torturing the family patriarch is his family’s tradition and sport. He can be introspective but can also find a reason to disregard his conclusions.

Fifty grams of chocolate gummy bears, a distraction and being mowed down by a bicyclist changes everything. Realizing he has failed at happiness, sprained his wrist, bruised his ribs, traumatized his spinal chord and had a silent heart attack he is told to cut back on everything, relax, follow his bliss. Professor is off to UC Bella Vista in Orange County, California to be a Visiting Professor. The move brings him close to his youngest child and his ex-wife and her present husband. The move is fraught with problems, issues, a punch in the nose and Professor Chandra finding himself at a healing spiritual retreat.

This book was all about “the state of Family.” The good Professor has had to invent “new memories, snapshots of purely imaginary kindness” to imagine his father as a good and caring parent. Despite being a parent who truly cares for his children Professor Chandra imposes the same strictures and judgments that were passed upon him as a child, the same words and criticisms which made him think he was such a failure to his father. Chandra’s daughter Radha is so similar in temperament that she has broken his heart by asserting a total disappearance and silence for the past two years. His son Sunny, worships at the temple of money equals success, positive thinking, financial karma and has become not a son but a rival. His youngest child Jasmine has been damaged by the divorce and her feelings of unimportance. The emotional wreckage would be devastating if told without the inherent humor in this book. There is brilliance, wit, cleverness, great writing and much love to be found in the pages of this book .

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for a copy.

69 year old Cambridge Professor Chandra has once again been passed over for the Nobel in Economics. He professes not to care, but of course it is a blow to his pride, and a rejection of his life's work. Then he is hit by a car, and as he recovers from that accident, he begins pondering his life - divorced, estranged from some of his children, lonely and empty. Then an opportunity arises for him to travel to America to see his ex-wife and one of his children, and thus his journey begins. This is a story of life, culture, how our parents influence our relationships with our children, and how it's never too late to start again. It has just the right amount of humor, a great story, and great characters. It can also make you rethink how you do things or respond to things or think of things. I thoroughly enjoyed Chandra's search for Bliss! Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the e-arc.

I gave up on this after reading about 10% of it. It just did not hold my interest. The characters just were not interesting to me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced read in exchange for this review.

Chandra is a world renowned economist. He's divorced and has 3 children he doesn't quite understand. He's married to his career. After an accident, his doctor encourages him to take a break. He begrudgingly agrees, unsure of where this break is going to take him.

The story is told at a somewhat slow pace over an extended period of time. Know that going in. Keep reading though! I wasn't a fan of Chandra, but I understood his need to continue to indulge in the only thing he's good at (economics). He's a terrible father and was a terrible husband. The story is slow, but it is sweet. It's his journey to figure out himself and it has touching moments. 3 1/2

Is it ever too late to change your life and learn the meaning of happiness? Passed over by the Nobel committee for the prize in Economics, Professor Chandra feels that he will never be truly recognized for his accomplishments in his field. Approaching 70, divorced and separated from his three adult children, he spends his time in his office at Cambridge or at home. Other than his field of expertise, he is out of touch with his students and the world in general.

In a moment of inattention, he is involved in an accident. Under constant stress and now injured, he suffers a minor heart attack. With complaints from several students of verbal abuse and his current health issues, it is suggested that he take time off. Contacts in California enable him to arrange a series of lectures and gives him the opportunity to visit his ex-wife Jean and youngest daughter. An encounter with Jean’s current husband leads to an opportunity to attend the Esalen Institute, enrolling in a course called Being Yourself in the Summer Solstice. Uncomfortable at first, he begins to make connections with some of th other attendees and discovers that it is never too late to learn and change.

Rajeev Balasubramanyam has created a character that is brilliant, pompous and so involved with his own career that he fails to see the needs of his family. As the attendees at the Institute reveal their own troubles and look for solutions, he considers his relationship with his own family. This is a journey of reflection that is filled with humor and is beautifully written. Professor Chandra is a character that stays with you long after the last page has been read. This is a book that I would highly recommend. I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House for providing a copy of this book for my review.

3.5. Often a 4 because of the language. BUT.

The setting:
Professor Chandra yet again fails to win the Nobel Prize. Stressed out. No happiness. Broken family--wife remarried, teenage daughter who's a wreck, estranged older daughter, and a successful son he doesn't understand.

Chandra leaves London after a bicycle accident. He goes to visit his wife and younger daughter in Colorado and ends up in a New Age seminar in California to "follow his bliss." There are confrontations here that set him in a tailspin and set up the rest of the story.

This book had a duality. I richocheted between humor and thought provoking. I found this offputting and somewhat of a disconnect. Certainly a book have both, but in this case, I didn't necessarily enjoy it. Nonetheless, there was lots of humor and great descriptions.

Some of the language I loved:

"From the battle lines on his face it wasn't hard to believe he was a man who had lived several lives."

Yoga--"Chandra had joined his wife for only one class before deciding his dog was better horizontal on the sofa with a Dick Francis novel than facing either upward or downward..."

"And when summer finally came he always spent the season terrified of winter's return, bracing himself of its arrival as one might a punch to the solar plexus from a prison warden."

"...at one point stuffed all his notes into the freezer along with his pencils and erasers only to discover them a week later conjoined to a packet of frozen spinach like a new and threatening life form."

"...gave a mental snort." LOVED THIS.

"...gently open your eyes... which caused Chandra to wonder how one violently opened one's eyes."

"...Sunny began to speak almost exclusively in sound bites..."

So--certainly a diverting read. And easy. I'm in the minority for seeing the bliss.

It took me longer than usual to read this book due to other obligations, but I was always happy to return to it and had no trouble remembering the distinctive characters and their stories. I liked the main character in particular, the commentary on his Nobel Prize aspiration, the subtlety of the treatment of his name by everyone else, and the interactions with his wife's new husband.

I think the author did a great job depicting academic life as well as a fractured family. There were interesting observations about Esalen, Zen and self-help gurus. I liked Professor Chandra's retrospection of both his career and family dynamics, and I appreciated that at the age of 70, he was able to alter the course of his life. I think this would be a good choice for book discussion groups.

Enjoyed this book, Professor Chandra, a brilliant man working his way to the top, and almost getting the Nobel Prize twice. He felt he deserved it, an arrogant prof who put his students down to the extent they would report him. Married with 3 children, 2 daughters and. a son, which he had so little time for as all he thought about was his career. His marriage breaks, he falls off his bike and he finds himself having to take time off. While visiting with his ex wife he gets into an altercation with her new husband but little does he realise this will change he whole life. A well written story which may give you a new prospective on the importance of finding “your bliss”, rather than driving yourself to success and wealth.

It took me awhile to get through this book- slow but interesting enough for me to finish. Family drama , divorce, drugs, teen angst, told a little differently - I wouldn’t quickly call my reading friends to pick it up .

Professor Chandra has it all- well not the Nobel Prize for Economics again this year, nor the love of his ex-wife, nor the attention of his grown-up children. That is about to change. After an ill-fated accident with a bike, a doctor's warning about changing your lifestyle, and a big birthday, Chandra decides to fly to sunny California and a retreat to search for his bliss. He views his life as he views his economic principles and applies them to his students, his family and all aspects of his life until now. Funny, heart-breaking and universally true, this man's search to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it is magical. His is one dysfunctional family that you will identify with and at the same time be thankful that your family is not this messed up. For lovers of quirky characters like those found in Fredrik Backman, Pat Conroy or Leif Enger. So, find a comfortable chair and get ready to laugh, cry and fall in love with the misadventures of Professor Chandra and family.

Pity poor Cambridge don P.C. Chandrasekhar — an internationally renowned economist and arrogant curmudgeon shortlisted for the Nobel Prize who goes by Professor Chandra. His wife Jean left him for a shallow child psychologist, whom she followed to Colorado; unfortunately, Jean also took Chandra’s teenaged daughter Jasmine in tow. His workaholic son Sunny has become “the brown face of global corporatism,” while his daughter Radha has become the argumentative comic-book version of a Marxist revolutionary. Needless to say, Chandra doesn’t have a good relationship with any of them; in fact, Radha has refused to see or even speak to her father in years. But it’s only after he’s hospitalized because of a collision with a cyclist that the 69-year-old Chandra begins to realize that he’s on the wrong track:

“Sometimes he wondered if it wasn’t all a giant con, the gaggle of letters after his name, the dinners with Angela Merkel and Narendra Modi, the notes from Gordon Brown and Larry Summers. They were like those fake Oscar statues bought at ‘World’s Greatest Photocopier’ or ‘Best Lightbulb Changer in the Galaxy.’ When he died only his writing would remain, until it was rendered obsolete when oil and coal ran out and the species established its first settlement on Mars.

Professor Chandra was the foremost trade economist in the world, could phone any finance minister in any country at any time and have them take his call. And yet, what if he had only convinced himself that the world envied him? What if, in reality, they felt sorry for him with his swollen ego and his Savile Row suits and his sculpted tri-continental accent?”

Pushed into attending a New Age seminar on the California seaside, Chandra begins to realize that it’s never too late to change course. This feel-good story, loaded with insight and humor, could easily have felt contrived, twee or manipulative, but author Rajeev Balasubramanyam never makes a false move. I could hardly pull myself away from its pages. The ending was satisfying without ever being hectoring or implausible. I cannot wait to read Balasubramanyam’s earlier work, In Beautiful Disguises.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, Random House and The Dial Press in exchange for an honest review.

I found the first part of this story difficult to warm to....the main character was so difficult to like. His process through the course of the book explored his opening as a person and the development of a wise, flawed, relatable character. Definitely for the 50+ reader to truly appreciate the dynamics.

A blissful read!
Everyone agrees that this is the year when sixty-nine-year-old Professor Chandra, Cambridge professor emeritus of economics and disciple of William Friedman, is a shoo-in to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, a prize that has JUST eluded him for several years. Even his teen-aged daughter Jasmine has flown in from Boulder, Colorado, where she lives with Chandra’s ex-wife, to rejoice with him. He doesn’t win. He takes the loss hard and muses that he was “the foremost trade economist in the world, could phone any finance minister in any country at any time and have them take his call. And yet, what if he had only convinced himself that the world envied him?” His marriage is gone. His daughter Jasmine lives in Colorado with his ex-wife; his son Sunny is too busy making money in Hong Kong with his School of Mindful Business to spend a lot of time consoling Dad; and his daughter Radha will not even let family members tell him where she is, much less will she speak to him. When a bicycle hits him as he crosses the street and he suffers a “silent heart attack”, Professor Chandry decides to take a break and accepts a position as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at UC Bella Vista. During a visit to his ex-wife Jean, a literal encounter with her new husband Steve leads him to accept Steve’s challenge and attend a week-end seminar at the Esalen Institute, and that is when the professor’s quest really begins.
The writing in the book is vivid, with touches of quiet humor, like when Chandra was “wrestling with his fear that the English might actually be as superior as they believed themselves to be”, and great bons mots, like “a rebel chose not to conform, while an eccentric had no option”. But what makes the book is the characters. Professor Chandry is an impatient, driven intellectual; Jasmine is a very mixed-up teen; Radha is an angry radical; and his son Sunny is a modern global entrepreneur. The ex-wife Jean is a rather repressed middle-aged woman, and her husband Steve is a laid-back semi-retired Boulder Colorado therapist with a side business growing flowers. These could be the typical cardboard characters found in so many novels about unhappy people and dysfunctional families, but author Balasubramanayam has turned them into real people that I enjoyed getting to know and wanted to be happy. I hope it won’t be too much of a spoiler if I say that the author did a good job of satisfying my wish.
Despite the emphasis on characters, I was carried along with Professor Chandry’s story and expected something in the nature of a climax or denouement. Instead it rather glided to the close. To someone accustomed to dramatic endings, this was a bit of a letdown, except that perhaps the author was saying that this is the nature of a journey to bliss.
Rajeev Balasubramanayam blogs on spirituality and race and has been a writer in residence at several Zen centers, so I had some concerns that this could be one of those books where the message overwhelms the medium. I need not have worried. The story of Professor Chandry’s quest and the people he encounters along the way kept me engaged for the entire book. At the same time, though, I found myself reflecting on the Professor’s reflections and thinking about my own image of bliss.
I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t know if Charles finds bliss but he certainly found the bliss of always learning. Fantastic book, nuanced and deeply drawn characters. The relationships change with Charles as the catalyst. I want to go to that retreat!
Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the advance coy in exchange for an honest review

3 1/2 stars. Really enjoyed the first third of the book getting to know cranky Professor Chandra. Though I did enjoy the book, the rest of his journey didn't engage me quite as much. I appreciate that his flaky/annoying family members were written to be somewhat challenging and annoying, but I found myself just being annoyed with them. So maybe the book succeeds after all?

This review has been posted to my Goodreads account.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced copy to review!
Actual rating 3.5.
I really enjoyed this book, but 1/3 of the way through it began to slow down. I hated the way Chandra viewed his daughter, as a millennial I felt like he was compressing her identity into a one dimension and not trying to understand her. It was frustrating until I realized that is how people from different generations view one another, and a lesson can be learned from this. I enjoyed his journey, and I feel like younger should read this to gain perspective. That being said, some of the story was unnecessary and just added length to the story, and there wasn’t enough of a resolution for my taste in Chandra’s character.
Overall, a perfectly lovely book that people who enjoyed The Exotic Marigold Hotel (like I did) will enjoy.

This is one of the absolute best books I've read all year! I fell in love with Professor Chandra right away and was immediately swept up into his story. The basic story here revolves around his own inner transformation, from someone who worships the world of work and places his family second because that is all he knows... to someone who realizes what the true meaning of "bliss" is. What I loved most is the way the author infused just the right amount of humor into the story every so often. I also loved being able to glimpse deep inside Chandra's mind. Every time I had to stop reading (for whatever reason), I was very disappointed and couldn't wait to pick up the book again!

Writing: 5 Plot: 4.5 Characters: 4.5

69-year old leading Cambridge economist Professor Chandra is a shoe-in for the Nobel prize in Economics — except that he doesn’t get it. Divorced, distant from his three children, and frustrated with the new tenor of academic life, this “non event” coupled with a silent heart attack sends him off on an unintended, Siddhartha-like quest for personal enlightenment (naturally starting with a sabbatical at UC Bella Vista in Southern California).

His journey takes him to unlikely places — both physical and emotional. He is tricked into attending a weekend workshop at Esalen; he visits his ex-wife and new, annoying husband in Boulder in order to see his troubled daughter Jasmine; he searches for a way to reach his middle daughter Radha — an angry Marxist who hasn’t spoken to her conservative father in over two years; and visits his son Sunil’s highly successful Hong Kong-based “School for Mindful Business” (based on principles completely antithetical to his own). He learns that he is human and not infallible and finds himself more OK with that than he would have expected.

Excellent and insightful writing — wry and witty with deliciously pithy and often hysterical articulations of his evolving viewpoints. Lots of interesting commentary about psychology, economics, spirituality, achievement and the personal search for meaning and happiness. I appreciate that while he learns more about himself, his priorities, and his relationships, he does not relinquish his intellectual interests or accomplishments.

Some great lines:

Brief but scathing summary of the identity politics Radha adheres to:
“‘West’ … ‘bourgeois’ … ‘capitalist’ … these words would fly from her lips like tiny swastikas, her knuckles turning white, her jaw clenched, her eyes hard as Siberian pickaxes as she sentenced most of the world to the gulag for their crimes against ideology.”

“An Indian Miss Havisham with an Emeritus Professorship and a takeaway menu.”

“… but he couldn’t help believing meditation was best suited to those with less mind to be mindful of: sociologists, for example, or geologists”

“Humans were like those snowflakes against the window, buffeted by winds no one understood.”

“Chandra accepted the phone as if he’d been handed a small but quite genuine lump of plutonium.”

“They seem to come pre-offended, forsaking any analytical content in favor of emotion and outrage.”

“But the undergraduates were even worse than in Cambridge: arrogant, unhygenic, and brazen, convinced that lazy platitudes and fallacious arguments would earn them nothing but praise if delivered with sufficient conviction.”

“King’s was Chandra’s least favorite college. It was the intellectual equivalent of a Disney princess, fluttering its eyelashes at tourists who didn’t know any better.”

“It was what Chandra loathed most about liberals — their shameless self-righteousness, as if the species’ failings were always someone else’s fault, while anything they did, murder and arson included, were heroic acts in the service of liberty and justice.”

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this arc.

I usually read mysteries / thrillers / action adventure stories..... usually much faster paced books. But I found this to be a very nice slow read. First though, I must comment that the reader have at least fifty years under their belt so they can properly enjoy it. This is an adventure story of sorts. Professor Chandra has reached the acme of his professional life and has to reconcile with himself that he may never attain all of his earlier professional dreams and aspirations (the Nobel Prize). This book is the story of his reassessment of his life, his world, his place in that world, his family and where he fits into all of it. Fortunately, he has opened his mind and his story forward is very engaging.

Professor Chandra has been passed over, once again, for the Nobel prize in economics. His children don't treat him as he would wish. His health deteriorates and he needs to learn to relax and take life easier. This is an enjoyable tale of how he learns to take life as it comes and to get along with his family and others.