The Bone Man of Benares: A Lunatic Trip Through Love and the World

By Terry Tarnoff

Book Overview

In 1971, fed up with the politics and culture of America, Terry Tarnoff packed a bag, a guitar and sixteen harmonicas and headed out on an eight year journey that would take him into the jungles of Africa, the mountains of India and beyond. Smoking a chillum around a funeral pyre with lepers, battling fist size cockroaches in Mombasa Africa or driving through the poppy fields of Thailand with a kamikaze cab driver, each adventure leads Terry further into worlds unlike those he has ever known. Through an eclectic coterie of like minded expatriates-from a heroin junkie in Bangkok to the girl of his dreams in Stockholm-Terry begins to discover the true purpose of his travels. An energetic exploration of one drop-out's search to find answers in a world that poses only questions, Tarnoff's journey is an exploration of freedom and an effort to push the limits of human experience. With wit, irreverence and more than an ounce of pathos, The Bone Man of Benares traverses the chasm of time and through his startling adventures speaks to readers young and old about the universal need for connection.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312324472
• ISBN13: 9780312324476
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 1.0" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Amusing and unusual traveller's tale

This is an amusing account of Tern Tarnoff's travels around the world in the early 1970s. Interwoven with his travels is the tale of his compicated on-off love affair with Annika, the charming girl he meets in Sweden, and remains enamoured of throughout his subsequent travels. When he isn't indulging in somewhat tiresome stream-of-consciousness ramblings, he describes his adventures in an entertaining way, and the book is often very funny. His time in African is particularly vividly described, and his eventual and startline encounter with the Bone Man of Benares is one of th ehighlights of the book, even though our curiosity as to what the bone man does with his bones remains unsatisfied. Very amusing.

Inspiration for a sad lad...

I spent a while reading this book and I have to say that I felt so many different emotions that I found it hard to put the book down. True love, the ripped heart, the soulmate, the music, the scares, the feeling of being part of something special... It's a book that you should pick up as soon as possible and hopefully a moment of your life will be filled with a rollercoaster of emotions!!

Outstanding!!

This book was an adventure all the way through. Every time that I picked it up, I found myself captured for hours as I devoured this fascinating book. Tarnoff does a magnificent job of transporting the reader with him to experience wondrous adventures in Europe, Africa, and Asia. I loved his picturesque descriptions as well as the poetic style of writing that emerges when he is describing certain experiences. Read this book and be prepared for a journey that will often make you laugh, sometimes make you cry, but in the end will leave you feeling good and triumphant.

Post-modern Siddhartha

I loved this book! It's a fantastic, beautifully-written hilarious poetic journey of one man whose search for manhood, spirituality and love takes him to the far corners of the world most of us only wish we could visit. Tarnoff writes with such color and verve that I felt transported to the cobblestone streets of Sweden, to the plains of Africa, to the perfect insanity of India, to the pristine altitudes of Nepal. Un-put-down-able, compelling, vivid, magical, funny, human. What more can I say? Read it!