Yoga

By: Emmanuel Carrère, John Lambert - translator

Narrated by: Nick Mondelli

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Emmanuel Carrère is a renowned writer. After decades of emotional upheaval, he has begun to live successfully—he is healthy; he works; he loves. He practices meditation, striving to observe the world without evaluating it. In this state of heightened awareness, he sets out for a ten-day silent retreat in the French heartland, leaving his phone, his books, and his daily life behind. But he’s also gathering material for his next book, which he thinks will be a pleasant, useful introduction to yoga.

Four days later, there’s a tap on the window: something has happened. Forced to leave the retreat early, he returns to a Paris in crisis. Life is derailed. His city is in turmoil. His work-in-progress falters. His marriage begins to unravel, as does his entanglement with another woman. He wavers between opposites—between self-destruction and self-control, sanity and madness, elation and despair. The story he has told about himself falls away. And still, he continues to live.

This is a book about one man’s desire to get better, and to be better. It is laced with doubt, animated by the dangerous interplay between what is fiction and what is real. Loving, humorous, harrowing and profound, Yoga hurls us toward the outer edges of consciousness, where, finally, we can see things as they really are.

©2022 Emmanuel Carrère and John Lambert (P)2022 Dreamscape Media, LLC

A Beautiful Journey

Emmanuel Carrère's best IMO. Sublime yet raw prose that strikes real life chords of melancholy and hope.

Horrible narrator

Probably the worst French pronounciations I’ve ever heard. Cringeworthy every time the narrator opened his mouth. Book is good otherwise. Narrator has to be replaced!!! Please!!

Unique, engaging and deeply personal

I read some of scathing reviews of this book, recommended to me by a psychologist friend and almost missed out on this wonderful, tender, thought-provoking listen. I will actually listen a second time, which I rarely do. I am older, introspective, and deeply curious about our collective humanity, which may help to explain why I love this book, but others did not. As an avid listener, I crave books that are both unique and easily accessible…and this satisfied.

An Aphoristic Journey

I listened to this audiobook with interest. There are a lot of stories that make up this book, some good, some better, some true, some made-up. I have taken what I needed, and left what I didn’t. I find it interesting he made up a character that disappeared…as he made up the characte…does it matter in the long run? No.

There are some pleasant recommendations for things to read. There are some interesting stories about Tai Chi, and the Tai Chi Walk, that will probably not mean anything to some. The title of the book could have been “Meditation” as much as “Yoga”…might have been better, as I was halfway expecting a book on the movement form of Yoga. So I must say this book “is what it is”…no more, no less. I much prefer Chopin’s Mazurkas and Nocturnes though…Horowitz and more recently Angela Hewitt and Fazil Say…

Why is a non-French speaker tasked with this story??

A personal journey without much to connect to for the reader. Could not get past all the sloppy French pronunciation. However, the narrator certainly conveyed the ego of the author pretty well.

Fiction autobiography

An amazing book with a unconventional structure where the writer is vulnerable and open and honest

I thought it was hogwash.

Honestly I haven’t disliked a book this much in a very long time.
This man shares about going to a silent retreat for 10 days. OK I’ve done that. He describes Yoga in the beginning -OK fine - a little boring but it was alright --
but then he goes on about his most precious secret love affair with a married woman in a secret hotel room. He shared about connecting to the characterJack Nicholson in The Shining.

He’s spent time in hospital for depression. He had depression at least three major bouts of depression. He’s bipolar. No shame --okay -- fine! ---
but this book was all over the place --and my own critical voice got in the way of the value I think the author was trying to share.
The heartfelt tender moment was when he shared about his past publisher. The friendship felt real --

Towards the end it was as though the author tried to end the book at least four times before he really could do it.

The title YOGA is a STRETCH ----almost a plot device -catchy word - to tell a story about an almost 60 year old man -- who was unhappy -- depressed -- not well much of his life -- but had 10 good happy years --
a man who never learned to type with all 10 fingers until recently -- but then finally he meets a lady who does graceful yoga-handstands -- He loves her. He is happy -- (wonderful --I'm glad he's happy) --
but overall --I found Emmanuel very annoying --
I just didn’t like the book.