Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence

I have never read any books in the area of zen fiction, so this one was a new experience for me. I could not put the book down and read the whole thing in one setting. I am a Christian guy who feels that so many of the premises delivered in this book should be used in Christian principles. All the characters were inviting, and Jake, the Zen master is a guy anyone who is on a spiritual path would want to know. Sure, the book has some cliches in it, but it was so refreshing to read a book where all the people are seekers of some sort, decent good people who are all searching for the capacity to love. I might even check out " sitting " myself.

As a beginning Buddhist practitioner, I really appreciated this book. The characters were real (and flawed). There's no high adventure, no chase scenes, no international plots. It's just a little "slice of life" book about a few people and how their lives interact for a short period of time. The characters were accessible and vulnerable and the plot was believable. David Guy managed to work a lot of Buddhist philosophy into the book without being at all preachy and to give an example of how a guy might actually live those principles out and the impact he could have on those around him. As someone who has suffered immensely because I could not accept the idea of impermanence, Buddhism has been very helpful. I felt like I got to know Jake (the main character in this book) and was able to take some of his wisdom with me, even as he faded.

It's appropriate that "Jake Fades" is about people in the Zen world. Zen takes the impossible and makes it into something that looks easy... until you try it. In the same way, David Guy takes the story of aging, illness, and death and writes his novel in such an easygoing, non-mannered way that it looks like anyone could do it... and since I'm a writer, I can tell you -- it isn't that easy! Guy has provided us with a stirring, funny, canny, emotional novel that features characters as real as in any book I've read. Jake is unforgettable, but so are Hank, Jess, Josh, even Madeline. I am a big fan of Buddhist fiction, from Kate Wheeler to Keith Kachtick, and this is another prime example of a story that is steeped in Buddhism, but is a perfect treat for anyone of any religion who likes to read.

Hank, the narrator of David Guy's Jake Fades, is a fabulously flawed, funny, smart, no-account, aimless seeker who tells us the story of our lives: How do we know that we know what we know? I wish Hank lived in my town. I'd buy him a beer, invite him to dinner, see if I could get him to stick around. Hank's story is enough to make a cynical atheist want to learn to meditate ... Well, almost.