And then I met Margaret is a collection of short stories
where the author details how ordinary gurus changed his life.
The author takes you on a journey via his short stories of
life lessons he has learned. He begins the book by citing the self-help gurus
he has met and the valuable information they shared with him. The rest of the
stories begin with a myth he once believed about life, and end with what he
deems the actual truth about it. The stories range from his early years and
follow his career path and family life.
I decided to read this as it was onlinebookclub’s book of
the month and was up for discussion and I must say that it caused a heated
debate. The first issue was that of a misleading title. Most of us believed it
was a romance novel due to the title, font and background colours, and were
then confused as Margaret had a tiny part to play in one story which certainly
did not seem pivotal. I found that for every “good” lesson the author learned,
someone had to be put in a bad light, and the author seemed to focus a lot on
material gains. One of the stories had a scenario which has been used as a “life
lesson” before and it got me wondering as to whether it had actually happened
to the author or whether it was borrowed for emphasis. There were also a number
of unnecessary grammatical errors.
Overall I didn’t really enjoy the book and found so many of
the “lightbulb” moments just common sense. I also questioned as to why these
people who had such an impact on him were named “ordinary gurus”. Firstly the
use of ordinary was condescending and secondly because surely anyone who
imparts any wisdom could then be called a guru? I don’t mind self-help books,
but this was not my cup of tea.
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