The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature: Finding Nirvana in the Classics

Sluyter (Cinema Nirvana), a retired prep school English teacher, posits in this lighthearted survey that there are enlightenment lessons to be found in Western classics, whether in works by Dr. Seuss or Aretha Franklin. In “Unutterable Visions,” he suggests the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald (namely, The Great Gatsby) holds the lesson to “be your own light,” while, in “Love Nonetheless,” he praises the “boundless compassion” that can be found in Toni Morrison’s writing, specifically The Bluest Eye. “Eternity’s Sunrise,” meanwhile, sees him analyze the oeuvre of William Blake, who found the divine in “every ordinary object,” and Sluyter makes a strong case in “Look Again” that Mr. Rogers saw life as “inherently beautiful.” While not all the essays are equally convincing—his pieces on kindness in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the internal satipatthana in the works of Virginia Woolf feel less fleshed out and require a bit more buy-in from readers—Sluyter’s angle is nonetheless an original one, and the execution is pleasantly breezy. Those with an appreciation of literature and spirituality will appreciate Sluyter’s fresh takes. Agent: Lisa Hagan, Lisa Hagan Literary. (Mar.)