What do you think?
Rate this book
Maya
This debut novel deals with sex, loss, and redemption.
It is 1975 and India is in turmoil.
American Stanley Harrington arrives to study Sanskrit philosophy and escape his failing marriage. When he finds himself witness to a violent accident, he begins to question his grip on reality.
Maya introduces us to an entertaining cast of hippies, expats, and Indians of all walks of life. From a hermit hiding in the Himalayan jungle since the days of the British Raj, to an accountant at the Bank of India with a passion for Sanskrit poetry, to the last in a line of brahman scholars, Stanley's path ultimately leads him to a Tibetan yogi, who enlists the American's help in translating a mysterious ancient text.
Maya, literally "illusion", is an extended meditation on the unraveling of identity. It mines the porous border between memory and imagination.
It is 1975 and India is in turmoil.
American Stanley Harrington arrives to study Sanskrit philosophy and escape his failing marriage. When he finds himself witness to a violent accident, he begins to question his grip on reality.
Maya introduces us to an entertaining cast of hippies, expats, and Indians of all walks of life. From a hermit hiding in the Himalayan jungle since the days of the British Raj, to an accountant at the Bank of India with a passion for Sanskrit poetry, to the last in a line of brahman scholars, Stanley's path ultimately leads him to a Tibetan yogi, who enlists the American's help in translating a mysterious ancient text.
Maya, literally "illusion", is an extended meditation on the unraveling of identity. It mines the porous border between memory and imagination.
328 pages, Paperback
First published June 23, 2015
8 people are currently reading
333 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 29, 2015
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
Maya is easily one of the best books I have ever read. I worry that anything I say in this review won't do it justice. I've tried again and again to briefly summarize the plot like is done in a book report but nothing I write seems satisfactory. So I will simply say that this book revolves around the story of one seeker's spiritual journey and metamorphosis. But it is not simple. It entails haunting existential angst, deep scrutiny of inner and outer experiences, identity crisis, and constant rumination on what is real and what is not (Maya means "illusion"). The novel is intense and profound and philosophical and wise, and it turned my brain inside out and upside down. I had to read it very slowly in order to absorb all the depth and wisdom and detail of it and to savor the whole experience. This book is mentally and emotionally demanding...but so unbelievably good. I intend to read it again...and again. C.W. Huntington is a profoundly gifted writer and Maya is, in one word, brilliant.
Maya is easily one of the best books I have ever read. I worry that anything I say in this review won't do it justice. I've tried again and again to briefly summarize the plot like is done in a book report but nothing I write seems satisfactory. So I will simply say that this book revolves around the story of one seeker's spiritual journey and metamorphosis. But it is not simple. It entails haunting existential angst, deep scrutiny of inner and outer experiences, identity crisis, and constant rumination on what is real and what is not (Maya means "illusion"). The novel is intense and profound and philosophical and wise, and it turned my brain inside out and upside down. I had to read it very slowly in order to absorb all the depth and wisdom and detail of it and to savor the whole experience. This book is mentally and emotionally demanding...but so unbelievably good. I intend to read it again...and again. C.W. Huntington is a profoundly gifted writer and Maya is, in one word, brilliant.
November 8, 2015
I don’t know what to say about Maya! I received a free copy of it at Book Expo America and I’m grateful for that but I’m unsure what to say...
...because I enjoyed reading this book but it is very misogynistic and racist, so I would never recommend it to anyone, yet it is a def guilty-pleasure.
I guess that’s what I have to say. The racism and sexism was, to me, so blatant in the ways the character fetishized India. At one point he becomes self-aware that he is part of this gross academic crowd that comes to India to boost up their own academic power and nothing else. He doesn’t want to use India as a tool and tries to respect it by distancing himself from academia and coming face-to-face with a lot of horrors that come with 1975 India and extreme poverty...
...but he still doesn’t fully get it. He still... makes microaggressions all the time. Most notably, was after he was mocked for being a tourists after two years of living on Indian streets and he complains that he has been there for two years... when will he ever be treated like an Indian...
Never. Because you aren’t and you can’t be, it doesn’t matter how much you budget your money so you can live poor / like-the-people.... you aren’t. You always have a cushion in America. And no amount of Indian costuming is going to take that away.
The thing is! this isn’t so subtle. This is very blatant and sometimes spelt out and I was thinking... okay so this character is kind of racist but this book isn’t racist.. because we are supposed to be a bit wary of this character, right?
But there is no real consequences for this character. Okay, he has a nervous breakdown towards the last arc, that’s pretty intense, but there is no clear line between racism to nervous breakdown.
And I know that not all books have to take an anti-racist stand and be part of the political movement. That a story can just be a story. Yes, I get that. But when you have a racist character who has no consequences for being racist... then well... are you being subversive at all? Does it matter if we know he is racist or not? Aren’t you just upholding an already gross ideal of Othering the East?
Anyway, the misogyny, on the other hand, isn’t even gray like the racism. It is straight up -- every female character here is sexualized except one who is repeatedly described as maternal and boyish. Every other female character, which there aren’t much, are only described in relation to the MC’s dick. So fuck that.
And yet.... this is a guilty pleasure read.
And yet, the prose was outstanding, showing off how passionate the author clearly was about India. 1975 India jumped right off the page, and parts of it are scary and parts of it are just beautiful, but honestly, all of it was beautiful in some sense. Also, since reading this book, I been frantically researching meditation and Buddhism, so thanks for that. And, though the MC was a bit of a douchebag, he was a complex and compelling douchebag. And lastly, yes, some of the philosophy thought way too much of itself, but there were pieces of it that gave me some fat to chew.
...because I enjoyed reading this book but it is very misogynistic and racist, so I would never recommend it to anyone, yet it is a def guilty-pleasure.
I guess that’s what I have to say. The racism and sexism was, to me, so blatant in the ways the character fetishized India. At one point he becomes self-aware that he is part of this gross academic crowd that comes to India to boost up their own academic power and nothing else. He doesn’t want to use India as a tool and tries to respect it by distancing himself from academia and coming face-to-face with a lot of horrors that come with 1975 India and extreme poverty...
...but he still doesn’t fully get it. He still... makes microaggressions all the time. Most notably, was after he was mocked for being a tourists after two years of living on Indian streets and he complains that he has been there for two years... when will he ever be treated like an Indian...
Never. Because you aren’t and you can’t be, it doesn’t matter how much you budget your money so you can live poor / like-the-people.... you aren’t. You always have a cushion in America. And no amount of Indian costuming is going to take that away.
The thing is! this isn’t so subtle. This is very blatant and sometimes spelt out and I was thinking... okay so this character is kind of racist but this book isn’t racist.. because we are supposed to be a bit wary of this character, right?
But there is no real consequences for this character. Okay, he has a nervous breakdown towards the last arc, that’s pretty intense, but there is no clear line between racism to nervous breakdown.
And I know that not all books have to take an anti-racist stand and be part of the political movement. That a story can just be a story. Yes, I get that. But when you have a racist character who has no consequences for being racist... then well... are you being subversive at all? Does it matter if we know he is racist or not? Aren’t you just upholding an already gross ideal of Othering the East?
Anyway, the misogyny, on the other hand, isn’t even gray like the racism. It is straight up -- every female character here is sexualized except one who is repeatedly described as maternal and boyish. Every other female character, which there aren’t much, are only described in relation to the MC’s dick. So fuck that.
And yet.... this is a guilty pleasure read.
And yet, the prose was outstanding, showing off how passionate the author clearly was about India. 1975 India jumped right off the page, and parts of it are scary and parts of it are just beautiful, but honestly, all of it was beautiful in some sense. Also, since reading this book, I been frantically researching meditation and Buddhism, so thanks for that. And, though the MC was a bit of a douchebag, he was a complex and compelling douchebag. And lastly, yes, some of the philosophy thought way too much of itself, but there were pieces of it that gave me some fat to chew.
May 17, 2015
Not at all what I was expected while reading the summary… And let me tell you that's a great praise!
It's a wonderful journey through words beautifully written. The reader discovers India and its culture by following Stanley adventures.
The guy is lost and try to discover the meaning of life, love and who knows what... By going in a foreign country to become a scholar, meditating and review his life.
Believe me the summary or my review will not do justice to this book as you travel by asking yourself a lot of questions, thinking the guy is high or dreaming while in really you are hooked on the prose, the scenery and the Indian history, folklore and beauty.
In parallel of this story, I was reading Mahabharata, one of the two Sanskrit epics, and it has helped me with some references.
A book that really has picked my curiosity and offer me a way to escape and to think.
Great read!
Lucie
http://newbooksonmyselves.blogspot.fr...
It's a wonderful journey through words beautifully written. The reader discovers India and its culture by following Stanley adventures.
The guy is lost and try to discover the meaning of life, love and who knows what... By going in a foreign country to become a scholar, meditating and review his life.
Believe me the summary or my review will not do justice to this book as you travel by asking yourself a lot of questions, thinking the guy is high or dreaming while in really you are hooked on the prose, the scenery and the Indian history, folklore and beauty.
In parallel of this story, I was reading Mahabharata, one of the two Sanskrit epics, and it has helped me with some references.
A book that really has picked my curiosity and offer me a way to escape and to think.
Great read!
Lucie
http://newbooksonmyselves.blogspot.fr...
December 18, 2020
This covers the gamut from cringey to stunningly beautiful and profound in a way that few novels do.
It's nakedly autobiographical (the author was Sandy Huntington, the main character is Stanley Harrington), at times reading much more like memoir than fiction. It has no real plot, just a series of loosely connected episodes, short arcs that rise and fall the way things do in real life but not usually in novels. And it's steeped in Buddhist and Hindu religious wisdom, at times merely acting as a vessel for Huntington to expound on his understanding of these concepts.
Sometimes the writing is heavy-handed, but most of it is pretty excellent, and when Huntington does write a scene, with characters and everything, he usually acquits himself beautifully. I rolled my eyes at a couple of scenes where a beautiful woman is driven mad with lust by the sound of Stanley mansplaining Vedanta, but to be fair the sex itself is very well written.
Some people seem to have found it a life-changing experience...not so for me, but the highlights are worth it.
It's nakedly autobiographical (the author was Sandy Huntington, the main character is Stanley Harrington), at times reading much more like memoir than fiction. It has no real plot, just a series of loosely connected episodes, short arcs that rise and fall the way things do in real life but not usually in novels. And it's steeped in Buddhist and Hindu religious wisdom, at times merely acting as a vessel for Huntington to expound on his understanding of these concepts.
Sometimes the writing is heavy-handed, but most of it is pretty excellent, and when Huntington does write a scene, with characters and everything, he usually acquits himself beautifully. I rolled my eyes at a couple of scenes where a beautiful woman is driven mad with lust by the sound of Stanley mansplaining Vedanta, but to be fair the sex itself is very well written.
Some people seem to have found it a life-changing experience...not so for me, but the highlights are worth it.
February 3, 2016
A struggling, jaded, and fairly unlikable Fulbright scholar making a tortuous journey of the mind and soul in 1975 India. Lush, descriptive writing, with some truly exquisite passages as well as numerous ideas to chew on (about reality, language, academia, love, sex, to name a few). Captures something essential.
January 1, 2021
So good and gave me my wanderlust fix. Takes you to India, but a little difficult to connect with the main character.
May 3, 2025
I found this book in a small bookstore in upstate New York as a stroke of fate as I was was about to travel to Asia on a similar adventure. I loved this book despite my distaste of the main character. This book very well encapsulates the expat experience of being in a developing country. There is also this raw feeling with every place, experience and character that this novel introduces to us. However, Huntington’s personal knowledge of the content limits him in this novel just as much as it helps him. This novel failed to earn a 5th star from me because there is a lot of time spent on the Stanley’s personal thoughts and relationship with the philosophy that he is studying. This isn’t inherently an issue, but the book ends up feeling like a fun adventure through India with abrupt delves into Hindu philosophy, that goes deep enough to slow the pace but not deep enough to become an outright philosophy novel. I find this detracts from both the philosophy and the adventure. But overall love the book
April 11, 2023
Listened on audiobook, and I fear I missed some parts during space outs or driving, but I found myself captivated and looking forward to my drives so I could continue with this book. It definitely took me a while to be engaged, as I didn't particularly like the main character at first, but then that became something endearing, that he showed his faults and challenges. Having followed the lives of many who studied in India during these years I truly enjoyed hearing the descriptions of the people, the cities, the food, and especially all of the chai! The descriptions often were NOT at all pleasing, and I found myself almost repulsed at times, but that was all part of the beauty of this book. In between the story were the lessons, the ancient wisdom, the "a-ha" moments and insights which I kept wanting to grab a pencil and jot down, but was often driving. I will likely pick up a hard copy of this book and reread it again.
September 23, 2017
A well-executed parable of the tension between the spiritual journey and the temporal one, only slightly marred by a slightly-less-than-satisfying conclusion. Gotta love a narrator who looks, unflinching, at his own warts.
Read
June 23, 2018a great story, with much nitty-gritty detail, of an American academic's quest to live an 'Indian' spiritual, intellectual and ascetic life. I was intrigued by the question of how much of the story was Huntington's own experience and how much was his creation.
August 5, 2024
Maybe it’s just dated but this seemed like a view of India and awakening informed less by insight than a cultural and intellectual flex, like the author was showing off more than telling a story or teaching.
August 30, 2015
Words will never be enough to say what this book has meant to me.
I will begin it again very soon and will keep re-reading it, perhaps forever.
I must thank Mr. Huntington first for creating a story that is exactly what I would have wished for my own alternate life story. His quest & story are all things I would never have had the energy,courage, or patience to have done on my own, at least this lifetime. He so magnificently created a world that to me was as visceral as I have ever experienced from fiction.
I also thank him so much for the wisdom, the questions, the laughter, the sadness, the despair, the joy he shares of living on this earth.
But maybe most of all, I thank him for the beauty of his writing. As one reviewer noted: "I've been waiting for someone to write a contemporary 'quest for enlightenment' novel, but I didn't expect it to be this good."
It is so good. It is so much more than I ever hoped for. My one word for it: magnificent.
I will begin it again very soon and will keep re-reading it, perhaps forever.
I must thank Mr. Huntington first for creating a story that is exactly what I would have wished for my own alternate life story. His quest & story are all things I would never have had the energy,courage, or patience to have done on my own, at least this lifetime. He so magnificently created a world that to me was as visceral as I have ever experienced from fiction.
I also thank him so much for the wisdom, the questions, the laughter, the sadness, the despair, the joy he shares of living on this earth.
But maybe most of all, I thank him for the beauty of his writing. As one reviewer noted: "I've been waiting for someone to write a contemporary 'quest for enlightenment' novel, but I didn't expect it to be this good."
It is so good. It is so much more than I ever hoped for. My one word for it: magnificent.
August 22, 2015
I received this book from Goodreads First Reads. It truly was a journey in words. My unfamiliarity with Indian culture left the story with an exciting exploratory nature and sent me on an adventure.
Being an American higher education student, however, brought a sense of relation to the story. The themes of academic uncertainty and straying from the need for approval hit close to home.
In addition to foreign culture, the story explores things in a somewhat epistemological manner, blending the conscious with the unconscious and the true with the false.
Being an American higher education student, however, brought a sense of relation to the story. The themes of academic uncertainty and straying from the need for approval hit close to home.
In addition to foreign culture, the story explores things in a somewhat epistemological manner, blending the conscious with the unconscious and the true with the false.
Want to read
March 10, 2015I've just won a copy of this book via Goodreads Giveaways. After it's arrived on my doorstep and I've had a chance to read it and formulate my opinions, I'll post an honest review. Stay tuned!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews