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A Novel by Rocco Lo Bosco
Format: 6 X 9 Hardcover, 150 pp.
ISBN: 0-9671851-8-1
Pub Date: February 2003
Price: $21.95
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Rocco Lo Bosco is a massage therapist, and, along with his wife Regina, the director of The Yoga Darshana Center in Babylon, Long Island. The Lo Boscos studied Yoga for over twenty years with the recently deceased Gurani Anjali, a master from Calcutta.
Most literature devoted to the Cambodian holocaust argues that no real recovery is possible for survivors; they remain frozen forever as victims, drained of joy and possibility, and condemned to lead circular lives in which they relive the misery of the past over and over again. Though this is certainly true for many, Rocco Lo Bosco's close friendship with a Cambodian survivor, coupled with his own beliefs and the teachings of Gurani Anjali, motivated him to create a strong and passionate counter-statement through BUDDHA WEPT.
Rocco Lo Bosco's stories and poems have appeared in numerous literary journals (among them Maelstrom Review, Another Chicago Press, Alaska Quarterly Review, Blue Unicorn and more). ACROSS A DISTANCE OF KNIVES, his first book of poetry, was published by Slough Press in 1982. He has served as editor for the Moksha Journal since 1987. BUDDHA WEPT is his first novel.
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Against the lush and exotic background of a mid-1900's Cambodian landscape, Ona Ny's childhood unfolds like a dream. She is treasured by her family, particularly her brother, and though her ecstatic trances sometimes make her feel like a bit of an oddball, her ability to translate her visions into art is always gratifying.
But while her mystical nature may seem frivolous during her childhood, years later, after Ona has become a loving wife and mother, it enables her to detect the subtle changes around her that indicate that the blissful tranquillity of everyday life is about to come to an end--not only for her family but for many others as well. When the Khmer Rouge soldiers enter Phnom Penh and the surrounding villages, Ona understands that the moment is at hand.
BUDDHA WEPT is the story of the life of an Asian mystic who survives and ultimately transcends Cambodia’s self-mutilation at the hands of the despot Pol Pot during the late 1970s. The character of Ona Ny is so beautifully drawn, at once so ephemeral and so authentically human, that the reader cannot help but want to be at her side as her life's journey takes her from a world of bliss to a world of unspeakable cruelty. Her sufferings are the reader's sufferings, and her gift-- the ability to muster the spiritual resources needed to transcend suffering--is the reader's as well.
A novel of terror and transcendence, BUDDHA WEPT insists on the persistence of love and endurance in the face of affliction. It is about the many aspects of good and evil that lie within each of us. It is about saying 'yes' to life, even when the word feels like a contradiction to the chaos around us. Most of all, it is about the vast power that sleeps within the core of the human heart until heartache awakens it.
AND MORE…
“Written in lyrical, almost poetic prose, BUDDHA WEPT takes one into the very soul of a woman, and thereby a culture, ravaged by war. Ona’s story will break your heart just deeply enough to uplift your spirit. Lo Bosco captures the essence of her, presenting a depth of knowing that takes the breath away. BUDDHA WEPT will stay with you long after the cover is closed. In short, a lovely work.” --Susan Mary Malone, author of BY THE BOOK (a novel); FOURTH AND LONG; FIVE KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING MEN; and BODYSCULPTING
“As direct as a folk-tale, written in a quiet and gently musical prose, this brave, harrowing, beautiful novel engages the greatest horrors of our era—then reaches a conclusion as unflinching as it is sublime. Rocco Lo Bosco’s BUDDHA WEPT announces a writer of depth, force, and heart. A writer who looks hard at chaos without succumbing to the chaotic. A writer who is on your side. It would not surprise me if BUDDHA WEPT became a classic, read all over the world.” -- Michael Ventura, author of LETTERS AT 3A.M.: REPORTS ON ENDARKENMENT
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