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My Life in Orange
T. Guest
London: Granta Books, 2004, 301 pages, paperback.
Reviewed by
Lois Kendall,
Ph.D.
Available in ICSA bookstore.
My Life in Orange by Tim Guest recently appeared in
U.K. bookshops; it also has been serialized on Channel 4 and in broadsheet
papers in the United Kingdom. With an admirable honesty, Tim Guest recounts
vivid memories of his childhood in the late 1970s and early 1980s growing up in
the communes of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, including time he spent in England,
Oregan, Pune, and Cologne.
When you begin to read this book, it will be abundantly
clear to you why the average citizen would want to hear about Guest’s
experiences. Despite the book’s apt title, the author covers the full spectrum
of emotions and human experience. This book uses language to paint colorful
pictures, clearly and vividly expressing experiences and emotions that are
difficult to convey. My Life in Orange captures what for some is the ache
of childhood; it is also funny in places. Not afraid to speak of the games and
joys of his childhood, Guest also speaks of the acute loneliness he felt living
among the Rajneesh group: “Loneliness was like frozen water, like falling into a
pond in the dead of winter and turning blue with cold” (p. 220).
The history of the Rajneesh movement and related events is
also incorporated in this book, interspersed with the author’s personal
experience. This blending works well; it is informative and allows the reader to
realize the context of the author’s life experiences.
The book is deep, yet light and readable, both for those
who have had similar life experiences and who, I am sure, will find solace in
this book, and for those with no such personal experience, who will find the
narrative fascinating. As someone commented on Tim Guest’s website (http://www.timguest.net/orange.htm)
regarding this book, “As a memoir of childhood, I’ve never read a better book.
You describe such painful emotions with clarity, honesty, and without any kind
of self-indulgence or self-pity.”
I would highly recommend this book; if you choose to read
it, I hope you get as much from it as I have.
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