In The Illusion of Separateness, award-winning author Simon Van Booy tells a harrowing and enchanting story of how one man s act of mercy during World War II changed the lives of strangers, and how they each discover the astonishing truth of their connection.Whether they are pursued by Nazi soldiers, old age, shame, deformity, disease, or regret, the characters in this utterly compelling novel discover in their, darkest moments of fear and isolation that they are not alone, that they were never alone, that every human being ...
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In The Illusion of Separateness, award-winning author Simon Van Booy tells a harrowing and enchanting story of how one man s act of mercy during World War II changed the lives of strangers, and how they each discover the astonishing truth of their connection.Whether they are pursued by Nazi soldiers, old age, shame, deformity, disease, or regret, the characters in this utterly compelling novel discover in their, darkest moments of fear and isolation that they are not alone, that they were never alone, that every human being is a link in an unseen chain.The Illusion of Separateness intertwines the stories of unique and compelling characters who through seemingly random acts of selflessness discover the vital parts they have played in each other s lives."
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The doctrine of dependent origination is at the heart of Buddhist teachings of all schools. It is a profoundly difficult teaching in its implications. In the Suttas, the Buddha rebukes even the most learned of his disciples for thinking they understand dependent origination. Broadly, dependent origination teaches that persons and things lack substantiality and fixity and are invariably changing. There is nothing substantial, fixed, and independent in, for example, personal identity; rather things and persons are inextricably interconnected to each other, with one thing flowing and changing from another. The Buddha also tries to teach a way to break the cycle of interconnectedness through the Four Noble Truths.
Although Simon Van Booy's novel, "The Illusion of Separateness" (2013) does not mention dependent origination, Buddhism, or the Buddha, at least part of the teaching pervades the book, as Van Booy says in a short oral presentation on the book that may be found here on the Amazon product page. In addition, the book opens with an epigraph from the Vietnamese Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh: "We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness". Born in Wales but living in the United States, Van Booy has written novels and stories with a strongly philosophical bent and has also edited three books of philosophical essays.
Van Booy's novel gives a novelistic account of the "illusion of separateness" by showing the interconnected character of the lives of people apparently separated in place, time, and culture. Each of the short chapters of this short book focus on one of six individuals: Martin, Mr. Hugo, Sebastien, John, Amelia, and Danny. With the exception of Amelia, a young blind woman who works as a curator in a New York City art museum and who speaks for herself, the events in the lives of each character are recounted in the third person. The individual chapters at first appear episodic and the characters separated. As the story unfolds, the connections among them gradually become clear.
The story centers upon events in France in 1944, shortly after the allied landing at Normandy. The characters include a severely wounded German soldier and an almost as badly wounded American fighter pilot and a French family of resistance fighters that protects a Jewish baby boy. In addition to the WW II settings, chapters of the book describe the subsequent lives of the characters, and of others who become connected with them, in Britain and America.
The book is beautifully written in a spare, minimalist style. Van Booy tells his story with a great deal of skill that reveals the relationship of his protagonists to one and another with a great deal of writerly cunning. Much of the book is moving and convincing. In places, the coincidences in the book seem jimmied together and forced.
Van Booy writes thoughtfully in a way that encourages readers to reflect of the ties and commonality that people share with one another. The book also has a degree of sentimentality. It lacks the toughness and depth that might come from a fuller consideration of the Buddhist teaching of dependent arising, which stresses a profound path out of everyday life's character of dependence.
