Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Insightful doesn't even begin to cover it April 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Dr. Asma has done the worlds of anthropology, Buddhist studies, and nonfiction writing an amazing service with this book. Every page reveals a new discovery, and you actually feel that you're along with Asma as he investigates a world not covered in the media the way Tibet is. I read it in paperback, then bought it in hardcover because I needed it to have a place of honor on my bookshelf. It's that good.
 And interesting but occasionally frustrating travelogue January 5, 2008
I picked up The Gods Drink Whiskey primarily to learn about how Buddhism is really practiced by the people whose history is rich with its influence. I wasn't disappointed as Asma combines his historical knowledge of Southeastern Asia, years of religious studies and up-to-date observations on modern-day politics in Southeastern Asia into an interesting and accessible explanation on how and why Buddhism is practiced today in the countries where it first appeared.
Unfortunately, the book could have been more polished. Asma devotes a large amount of time assuring the reader he's trying not to be overly presumptuous as a foreign scholar teaching in a less economically-developed country than the one he was born in, and then goes ahead and does it anyhow. This mostly manifests itself as occasionally patronizing portrayals of the locals and their lifestyles. Asma goes to great lengths to talk about a modesty that doesn't come across in his words, and it's all the more eye-rolling because it doesn't do service to the more scholarly, and more interesting, parts of the book.
Not only that but despite Asma's extreme awareness of the complexities of life in the east, he turns around and blithely dismisses the idea of a similar complexity of thought in the west. There's not a little condescension as he seems to assume some of these blunt and unsophisticated viewpoints will be par for the course with his readers. This doesn't mix well the navel-gazing tangents Asma can't seem to resist inserting into the book. "Our pop-culture is infantile and you're sheep for buying into it! Prostitution is better off when it's regulated! Yeah I said it. Did I just Blow Your Mind?"
Well, no. These are certainly topics worth investigating but it would've been nice if Asma assumed we're intelligent enough to have already given them some thought, or at least intelligent not to fall down onto our fainting couches until someone comes with the smelling salts.
Apart from all this, I do think The Gods Drink Whiskey is a useful book on Buddhism in modern-day Southeast Asia. Asma has done his research into the topic in both formal academic and religious institutions and by polling the man on the street. The result is an insightful look at the transition between religious theory and its actual practice after idealism meets reality. Despite my gripes with the book's tone, if the subject interests you at all track down a copy somewhere.
Readable, intelligent but some major issues January 11, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read this book during my second trip to Southeast and South Asia. The author is very articulate in explaining what appeals to him most about Theravada Buddhism, namely its rational and logical approach to explaining the nature of reality and consciousness as detailed by the Buddha in the Tripitaka. He writes fluidly, and makes many fine points. As a Buddhist, most of his points I had read elsewhere, but I enjoyed viewing Buddhism and SE Asia from his perspective teaching grad students in Phnom Penh. But as a Californian, who has lived all over the US and the world, and a Tibetan Buddhist, I found a lot of this book to be problematic and snide.
As reviewers have pointed out, once Asma veers into his personal beliefs on politics, feminism, postmodernism, etc..., he starts to lose credibility. He begins to sound like a cranky Midwestern, straight-laced hetero guy who, just like a lot of Chicagoans, likes things straight-forward and none of that spacey California new-age stuff. And he does disparage Mahayana Buddhism a lot, complaing that though it only accounts for 6% of the world's Buddhists, it gets an inordinantly large amount of attention in this country. First of all, I don't know where he gets that figure, but I do believe that Japan, Korea and Vietnam, as well as whatever Tibetans are left, fall under the category of Mahayana, so that 6% figure can't be right. And as to why Mahayana gets this much attention, perhaps Asma should look up the term "Tibetan diaspora." That might jog his memory. His bagging on Californians as crystal gazing lotus-eaters is just good old fashioned stereotype-baiting. Got news for you - you can find those types in Chicago and the Midwest too buddy. Been there, seen it. And his views on prostitution ...he must be a Playboy reader. And other problems - in the end, he comes off as an good writer, great insights about Cambodia and Theravada, but also a very biased writer who is all too easily impressed with his own ideas and "brilliance."
A dynamic story of dangerous times and beliefs emerges. December 12, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's hard to know where to place this: THE GODS DRINK WHISKEY: STUMBLING TOWARD ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE LAND OF THE TATTERED BUDDHA could have been featured in travel, spirituality, or biography. Ultimately, however, it's an account of Buddhist beliefs and particularly the Theravada tradition, considered Buddhism's earliest, purest form, and comes from a Buddhist teacher and academic who relates his stories about his teachings in Southeast Asia during the 1970s. A dynamic story of dangerous times and beliefs emerges.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
a great read on Buddhism and Cambodia March 12, 2006
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have just finished reading this book for the second
time. The first was about one year ago after a trip to
Southeast Asia and then again when I had returned from
another trip to Cambodia and Thailand. Cambodia is a
truly remarkable place and I am also an avid Buddhism
student, and I can say that on both of these fronts
Dr. Asma has done an excellent and thoroughly
entertaining job. His Cambodian stories all rang true
to my experiences there and had me alternating between
laughing out loud and in tears with memories of the
people I met and the places I had visited. The
Buddhism discussions are excellent at explaining
complex ideas in an understandable manner. I TRULY
enjoyed both aspects of this book and highly recommend
it for anyone interested in Buddhism, or anyone who plans to,
or already has traveled to Cambodia (a truly great
place with wonderful people, who have had more than
their share of suffering)
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