Review: The Circle of Karma

The Circle of Karma by Kunzang Choden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was off of my Asia 2019 project for too long, but this was a nice book to pick it back up with. The novel tells the story of Tsomo, a Bhutanese woman, from childhood to elderly years. It tackles all the life events - siblings, growing up, rituals, death, marriage, employment, journeys, religious practice, etc. Tsomo finds herself on a journey for blessings from several lamas once she decides her marriage has brought her into a place of bad karma and that is the majority of the book. And just like I like in a book I'm reading to learn about another place, there is a lot about food and ritual and societal structures/differences between the Bhutanese themselves but also between the Bhutanese and the surrounding groups. As far as I can tell, this is written in English, not translated from another language. Even so there are too many commas at times, and not enough other times, and a few other grammatical errors in this printing. I suspect that is the price you pay when you try to read a book from every country.

View all my reviews