#18 - Meeting Faith, by Faith Adiele

[chipmunk-planet.livejournal.com]

Someone recommended this book here (couldn't find the rec by searching the tags and today is a busy one), so I got it, and I'm really glad I did.

This is a memoir of a biracial (Finnish/Igbo) American woman, the daughter of immigrants, who, depressed and failing at Harvard, decides to go to Thailand, where she had gone as an exchange student in high school. While studying women's issues in Thailand, she decides (on the urging of her Thai advisor) to become a maichi, a Buddhist nun.

The thing about Thailand is that you can become a monk or a nun for a time, then leave whenever you like. Faith spends one Lenten season with the maichis, and although she went more as an anthropologist than anything else, you get the impression that she left the temple profoundly changed.

This is a fantastic book, one that I'm going to be rereading a lot. Highly recommended.

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

Whoa. As a biracial Finnish woman who doesn't often see much about biracial Finnish people I totally want to check this out! Thanks for posting.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

This sounds really interesting. I'll be checking it out. Thanks!