Follow the Joy – A Memoir

Reviewed by Awesome Indies Assessor

September 8, 2014

‘Follow The Joy’ is a true story of what happened when, at 27, Jason Kurtz bought a one-way ticket to India and let intuition be his guide. He studied meditation, taught English to Tibetan monks, and volunteered at the Mother Theresa Homes for the Destitute and Dying. He learnt to live day to day, be open to unexpected possibilities and ultimately to follow his joy.

The thing that is immediately and wonderfully apparent in this memoir is that the author knows how to write well. This book is a pleasure to read. The author skilfully teases out the theme of how to live a compassionate life and imbues it with the kind of tension we expect in a novel. We share Jason’s hopes and fears, and his struggles with the reality of life for a foreigner in India and with his own insecurities. India comes alive on the pages of this book, and the story itself reflects the extremes of spiritual peace and bustling activity of India itself. This ultimately spiritual journey builds to the point where Jason finds himself holding the hand of a dying man in one of the Mother Theresa Homes. The whole section of Jason’s experiences in the Homes is highly moving.

I could talk about how well-drawn Jason is, and how alive are the other characters; I could talk about how good the prose it, how well described the settings, and how well-constructed the story is, or I can simply say that I cannot fault this book. It is, quite simply, an excellent example of a memoir.