Book: Holy Cow

(In case you were wondering: yes, as a matter of fact I am trying to do a review on each book I read before I take it out of the sidebar.)

Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald is, in summary, about a woman who goes to India and, despite being an atheist, decides to try on a half-dozen or so religions for fit.

I went through the book half-cringing in expectation that she'd end the book in the bosom of Mother Church, but she didn't. She did come away with an expanded sense of personal self and spirituality.

But here's the thing: I didn't feel it.

She did a fantastic sense of conveying the feel of the various religions and retreats she visited, she imaged India and her experiences there quite vividly... and yet I couldn't detect any difference between the author at the end of the book from the author at the beginning of the book. I guess that's because she probably didn't start writing the book until after it was all over, or maybe it's an artifact of my having read most of the book in 2-3 page snippets, but it seemed to me that her tone was pretty much the same when she left India as it had been when she arrived. At any rate, I didn't get a feel for her having actually grown or changed as a person, no matter what the words said.

Which is too bad. I wanted to like this book about spirituality that didn't climax with a come to Jesus moment and then spend the denouement trying to sell me on the One True Way. Instead, it left me feeling vaguely concerned for the author's sense of self.