A01=Jaed Coffin
Author_Jaed Coffin
Category=QRF
Category=QRVP
Category=WTL
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_travel
Product details
- ISBN 9780306815263
- Dimensions: 140 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 08 Jan 2008
- Publisher: Hachette Books
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Six years ago at the age of twenty-one, Jaed Muncharoen Coffin, a half-Thai American man, left New England's privileged Middlebury College to be ordained as a Buddhist monk in his mother's native village of Panomsarakram- thus fulfilling a familial obligation. While addressing the notions of displacement, ethnic identity, and cultural belonging, A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants chronicles his time at the temple that rain season- receiving alms in the streets in saffron robes bathing in the canals learning to meditate in a mountaintop hut and falling in love with Lek, a beautiful Thai woman who comes to represent the life he can have if he stays. Part armchair travel, part coming-of-age story, this debut work transcends the memoir genre and ushers in a brave new voice in American nonfiction.
Jaed Coffin holds a B.A. in philosophy from Middlebury College and an M.F.A. from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast Writing Program. A boxer, sea-kayaker, and lobster fisherman, he lives in Brunswick, Maine.
