Four Men Shaking Searching for Sanity with Samuel Beckett, Norman Mailer, and My Perfect Zen Teacher

Due to what he calls his "inexplicably good karma," writer Lawrence Shainberg's life has been filled with relationships with legendary writers and renowned Buddhist teachers. In this engaging memoir, Shainberg weaves together the narratives of three of these relationships: his literary friendships with Samuel Beckett and Norman Mailer, and his long teacher-student relationship with the Japanese Zen master Kyudo Nakagawa. In Shainberg's lifelong pursuit of both writerly success and Zen equanimity, each of these men come to represent an important aspect of his experience. The brash, combative Mailer becomes a symbol in Shainberg's mind for the Buddhist concept of "form," while the elusive and self-deprecating Beckett seems to him to embody "emptiness." Through it all is Nakagawa, the earthy, direct Zen teacher continuously encouraging Shainberg to let go of his endless rumination and accept the present as it is.