Beautiful writing, no dramatic tension, positive but sometimes shallow message, and unpleasant ableism about mental health and neurodiversity. Splitting the difference between the good and bad aspects, I would give it 2.5 stars.

As a Christian married to a Buddhist, I could be considered the ideal audience for this book. My Episcopal church group just finished a video series about Pope Francis that left us with great admiration for his humble piety and concern for the poor, though naturally we disagree on gender issues. So I was receptive to the book's message that we need to de-emphasize doctrinal boundaries and religious institutions, and find the common heart of compassion in all faiths. I appreciate that Merullo allowed respectful disagreements between the characters to remain unresolved.

I usually feel that it's cheating to throw in miraculous events at the end of a realist novel to tie up your plot. But this book was not realistic from the beginning, more of a novelized allegory or fable, so the claim of a modern-day virgin birth didn't bother me. It challenged me to consider that the seeds of divinity are in all of us.

As I mentioned, Merullo is a great stylist. The narrator's voice was both poetic and funny. I felt I was getting an inside look at Italian history and culture from someone who loved the place. On the down side, the story really dragged for me because there was no tension. I could already predict from the jacket copy that this would be a feel-good, sentimental story where the husband and wife reconcile, everyone learns a valuable lesson, and there are no negative consequences for creating an international panic about the disappearance of two famous religious leaders.

I do admire Pope Francis, but the fictional version's benign perfection was rather too much. The civilian characters challenge him a bit about birth control and women's roles, but he gets a pass on other life-and-death issues where the Church continues to do great harm. I was angry that Merullo has the Pope muse sadly about depression and suicide among young people, attributing these problems to a generic crisis of modernity and alienation. What about all the LGBTQ kids who take their lives because of conservative religious teachings? Take out the mote in your own eye, Your Holiness.

The mental health ableism was the book's biggest flaw. Compared to his companions, Paolo is an anxious person who likes order and security, which the book treats as a spiritual flaw for him to overcome. This plays into the widespread problem of churches shaming people for their depression and anxiety as a lack of faith. Judgmental moralizing about natural human neurological variations is no better than preaching heterosexual superiority.

The Pope and the Dalai Lama have lifelong phobias of heights and water, respectively, that are cured after (involuntary, in the Pope's case) one instance of forced exposure to the scary situation. I can't emphasize enough what an abusive thing this would be to do to a real person with a phobia. The false notion that people need to be shocked out of their comfort zones undergirds real-life opposition to trigger warnings and other accommodations for a range of disabilities such as PTSD and autism.

See review on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2010788247?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

This has the air of a whimsical religious fable. Narrated by the Pope’s cousin and first assistant, Paolo dePadova, it’s about how the Pope and the Dalai Lama manage to sneak away from the Vatican for a five-day Italian vacation. Paolo is a former travel agent and his ex-wife and co-conspirator, Rosa, is a hair and makeup artist, so they’re the perfect pair to arrange a last-minute road trip in disguises. They take a secret tunnel from the Pope’s private chapel into town and meet Rosa there, where she and her colleagues work their magic. The Pope (“Giorgio”) is gotten up as a Scandinavian businessman with a blond hairpiece, while the Dalai Lama (“Tenzin”) is a Yoko Ono-type rock star with a long wig and big glasses. Paolo himself gets a new identity, too: as a darker-skinned Gaddafi lookalike, he gets to experience what it’s like to be a despised minority in rural Italy.

At first it seems the trip is just a chance for these two holy men to enjoy ordinary life, but gradually we realize that they are also on a religious mission: they’ve been having remarkably similar visions of a special child whom the Dalai Lama believes could be his successor on Earth. The book contains a number of low-key religious debates, most of them initiated by Rosa, and there are pearls of spiritual wisdom dotted through. I especially appreciated what the Dalai Lama has to say to Paolo about why things fell apart between him and Rosa: “We make up stories about the other person. In our minds we build these stories—she is this way, he is that way; look, she always do this, he always do that—and then these things keep us from seeing this person full as they are in present moment.” Some of the plot felt predictable to me, but the characters’ actions and speech are believable.

Actual rating: 2,5/5 stars

The idea of having the Pope and the Dalai Lama converse about their respective faith is not entirely new, but the road trip element made it fun again. I also enjoyed the addition of many doubting or non-spiritual characters to question and discuss issues of the two world religions. The book was a contrast between two spiritual ideas, west and east, faith and rituals vs the fast modern life and our false goods of capitalism and technology. It contrasted nicely the sometimes rigid and constructed Catholic rules with the open, rawer Buddhist spirituality. Overall, of course, a lot of common ground was discovered by "the Holy ones" as well as the readers. I liked the elements of humor and how grounded everything was in the normal lives of ordinary people. These kinds of books offer a unique take on spirituality and are able to teach something without lecturing or putting down other religions. Kudos for that.

Those were the first three quarters of the novel. At that point, I would have taken one star off because the exposition seemed a little forced at times. However, than another subplot forced itself into the foreground: the vision-dream, miracle child, savior, second virgin birth subplot, which I did not like at all. It was simply too much and added too much serious substance into this otherwise humorous plot. Up until that point, it was a nice "what if?" story, but those miracle children made it a "wait what?" - making me question if this was realistic of fantasy and why it took such a drastic turn all of the sudden. I simply did not like it, and sadly, it ruined the experience for me.

Merullo
January 18, 2017Insights into BooksEdit
What happens when the Pope and the Dali Lama decide to go on an secret road trip without telling anyone? The Delight of Being Ordinary: A Road Trip with the Pope and the Dali Lama by Roland Merullo tells of such andventure taken by the Pope, the Dali Lama. Along for the ride are Paolo dePadova, the Pope’s cousin and assistant, and Rosa, Paolo’s estranged wife.

This book conquers aspects of spiritual thought such as life after death and traditional religion. It is a fun, spiritually questioning book. It will make you consider things in a new light. I liked the contrast between the Buddhist and Catholic faiths, as well as their different explanations to questions.

The characters are entertaining and wise. I liked Rosa because she wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion or ask questions. Paolo is a bit uptight throughout the book, I mean he essentially kidnapped two holy men, who wouldn’t be? Paolo questions his logical thinking and beliefs along the way. I enjoyed how he grew in this book.

Filled with humor and spiritual wisdom this book is worth reading. I think that those who like stories with a twist, a bit of adventure, and spirituality will like reading this book.

I wonder give this book four out of four stars. I enjoyed the plot and the premise. I do wish we had heard a few more spiritual insights from these two holy men though. While there were spiritual concepts presented it wasn’t in such a way as to subtract from the readability of the story. The book was a very light entertaining read.

I acknowledge that I received this book free of charge from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.