Stuart Kelly

Spot on target

When Lipsyte’s hero develops his ‘mental archery’ lifestyle therapy, he’s hailed as a guru. This dazzling send-up of cultism also has a serious side

issue 16 February 2019

This is an ebullient, irreverent and deeply serious novel in the noble tradition of Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis (especially Babbitt and Elmer Gantry) and John Kennedy Toole. Sam Lipsyte certainly hits his prime target — the cultish behaviour around mindfulness, motivational speakers and pallid spiritual beliefs — but one of the joys of the novel is that over and above that there is a scatter-gun sniping at various fads.

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Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

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