In Revere Beach Elegy, Roland Merullo, author of ten novels, including Breakfast with Buddha, and three other books of nonfiction, reflects on family, friends and a series of experiences that include a stint in the Peace Corps, service in the former Soviet Union, and excursions to Europe. The author shares his spiritual, intellectual and emotional discoveries along the way, writing about his relationship with his father, his working class upbringing and upper class education, the early years of his marriage, and the gift of children. From a severe eye injury and a broken back, to the joys of Italian travel and friendship, from poverty to abundance, adolescence to middle age, Merullo paints a life that is rich with adventure and insight. Michael Upchurch of The Seattle Times said, "Revere Beach Elegy is an autobiography in ten essays that is sublimely refreshing it its love and generosity. Merullo's prose, as he outlines the worlds he cherishes, has a luminous subtlety that brings alive rich layers of feeling in an immediate intelligible manner. His eye stays intently trained on how we guide ourselves through life." And, Publishers Weekly wrote, "Merullo writes about [the adventures] and the people and places of his life with careful reflection and painstaking kindness..."

Revere Beach Elegy: A Memoir of Home and Beyond

Biographies & Memoirs

MERULLO, ROLAND

Arts & Literature

AJAR Contemporaries

Two weeks before the failed right-wing coup of August 1991, Anton Czesich, an American in his late forties who has spent a mostly disillusioning career working overseas for the U.S. government, arrives in Moscow to take charge of a volatile American food distribution program—a program administered by Julie Stirvin, the love of his youth. She and Czesich have their own history, their own protracted cold war. Many miles away, in the mining center of Vostok, Soviet bureaucrat Serghei Propenko, a former champion boxer, is in the midst of his own midlife crisis—partly personal, partly political. Modest and decent, surrounded by a household of strong-willed and politically astute women, Propenko is pinched between his traditional ambitions and concern for his very untraditional daughter, Lydia. As Czesich's and Propenko's fates intersect, it becomes clear that both men are partially paralyzed by the same suspicions and fears that crippled Soviet-American relations for so long. A Russian Requiem is a page-turner with depth, a finely crafted novel about the small piece of history each of us bears and the way our intimate lives reflect and echo in the politics of nations. Speckled with humor and irony, rich in both psychological and political drama, it carries the reader on a post-cold war voyage through the Russian — and American — soul. In a recent 2011 review, novelist Tony D’Souza wrote “...I can’t help but draw parallels between Merullo’s take on the last days of the USSR and the contemporary changing of the guard we are fortunate to be witnessing in North Africa, bloody as it’s been... Taking his cue from Graham Greene, Merullo crafts a political thriller with a profound moral compass, chronicling a former Soviet apparatchik’s conflicted emotions as he decides between the safety of his position and the real hopes of freedom he has for his country.” And, Kirkus Reviews, called it “A moving novel — with great cinematic potential — that brilliantly captures the historically tense moment of Russia on the verge of freedom, just before the attempted coup and the Party's last gasps.”

A Russian Requiem

Literature & Fiction

Literary

A novel both literary and suspenseful, Revere Beach Boulevard tells the story of a family that rallies around an errant son, even as a long-hidden secret that has touched all their lives comes to the surface. Peter Imbesalacqua has bent the rules and battled a gambling addiction for most of his adult life. Now, his real-estate business in shambles and his life in danger because of an unpaid debt, he spins at the center of a hurricane of love and risk. His parents, sister, and friends, all carrying their own secrets, find themselves drawn into the terrifying storm, each trying to do for Peter what he must ultimately do — or fail to do — for himself. Revere Beach Boulevard is a rich and heartfelt novel that looks deeply into the secret places in men's and women's hearts, places only great fiction can reveal.Richard Russo called it “a great novel—ambitious, heartfelt, generous, and oh-so-skilled." And, Washington Post Book World wrote, “Merullo invents a world that mirrors our world in all of its mystery. And he does it in language so happily inventive and precise and musical, and plots it so masterfully, that you are reluctant to emerge from his literary dream."

Revere Beach Boulevard

Genre Fiction

Leaving Losapas begins on a tiny atoll in the equatorial Pacific. Leo Markin, a young US Marine and Vietnam combat veteran who survived the war, found himself so changed by the experience that he simply could not find a way to return to his home, family, and his fiancée in a working class city of his birth outside of Boston. The islanders in Losapas are kind to him-he had been living there for years-and he had found a woman he came to love. Various events conspire to convince him to return to America, but on his return home he feels lost. He has troubling encounters with his aging father, finds that his fiancée has married another man and appears trapped in an abusive relationship, and his old friends seem like strangers to him. Leo is torn between the peaceful, natural way of life on the island, and the rougher rules of his upbringing. In the end, though he has sworn to turn his back on physical violence, it is an act of physical violence that convinces him the only place he can live is Losapas. When his father suddenly dies, Leo decides to leave the house he inherits to his former fiancée-thus encouraging her to leave her husband-and he returns to the life he left behind and to his island lover. Boston Magazine called Leaving Losapas a "great surprising book...the best novel of the year..." and The Rocky Mountain News said "it's a wondrous, spiritually rich story...Merullo has created something of beauty...Leaving Losapas will linger in your mind long after you close its pages."

Leaving Losapas

During the ten years author Roland Merullo (Breakfast with Buddha) taught at the university level, and during the numerous writing conferences and workshops he has been a part of since then, he has heard volumes of advice about the technical aspects of writing including plot, character, pace, description, dialogue, theme, metaphor, and symbolism. In the conferences especially, there has been a lot of practical information about finding an agent, attracting a publisher, self-publishing, e-publishing, and marketing a book once it is in print. All this is very good, helpful, and necessary. For high school and college writers, the technical material is useful; for those writing a book or hoping to make a career in the world of words, the practical material can provide a clear understanding of the publishing landscape. But again and again in those classrooms and workshops, Merullo was struck by the fact that very little was being said about what might be called the emotional or psychological aspects of the writing process. Over the course of thirty years in the profession, thirteen book publications, and several hundred articles, reviews and essays…and thanks to countless conversations with writers – some famous, some widely published and admired, some struggling to finish a first book or find an agent, or just earn a good grade on a college assignment – Merullo knows how critical that interior dimension of the writing life is. In this book, Merullo hopes to shed some light on that dimension of the work, not as a psychiatrist or counselor, but as an author, because he “is sure that writing success – however that term is defined for the individual writer – always has its roots in the soil of the psychological/emotional world.” From chapters entitled “Writer’s Block” to “Finding A Mentor” to “Impatience and Rejection”, Merullo covers these topics with the insight, empathy and encouragement of an author who has “been there.” Demons of the Blank Page is a no-nonsense handbook and guide for aspiring and established writers alike. Merullo’s work has been hailed “happily inventive, precise and musical” by The Boston Globe and “emotionally complex, politically intelligent, [and] beautifully written” by Kirkus Reviews.

Demons of the Blank Page

Reference

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Most avid golfers believe that there is a profound connection between the joys and challenges of golf and the joys and challenges of living — that the more devoted we are to the game, the more we learn about ourselves. In Passion for Golf, Roland Merullo looks carefully at those connections and at the reasons why people find themselves irresistibly attracted to golf. Drawing on the triumphs and travails of playing partners, friends, and family members, and mixing in anecdotes from his own adventures on and off the course, Merullo explores the notion of a 'true goal of golf,' a hidden attraction that, ultimately, has more to do with deep peace and satisfaction than with the dream of playing on the PGA tour. He finds connections between fairway lessons and the mystical wisdom of Lao Tzu, Theresa of Avila, Thoreau, Jesus, Buddha, and Walt Whitman, among many others, and looks into the role of ego, anger, and silence in golf and life. More than anything else, Passion for Golf is a celebration of the game, an examination of the roots of our passion for it, and a meditation on the lessons every golfer carries away from the course and into his or her life. Publishers Weekly wrote, “For average hackers who struggle weekly to lower their scores, this slender, accessible guide offers insight into the emotional stumbling blocks that get in the way of improvement and, most importantly, enjoyment of the game… Readers who enjoyed Michael Murphy's Zen of golf classic, Golf in the Kingdom, should have room for this spiritual journey in their Christmas stocking." And, The Washington Post stated “…Merullo provides more than enough food for thought for even the most contemplative golfer.”

Passion for Golf: In Pursuit of the Innermost Game

Sports & Outdoors

Golf

Heartbreaking in places, hilarious in others, Lunch with Buddha takes its readers on a quintessentially American road trip across the Northwest.  That outer journey, complete with good and bad meals, various outdoor adventures, and an amusing cast of quirky characters, mirrors a more interior journey--a quest for meaning in the hectic routine of modern life.  Otto Ringling, who's just turned 50, is an editor of food books at a prestigious New York publishing house, a middle-of-the-road father with a nice home in the suburbs, children he adores, and a sense of himself as being a mainstream,middle-class American.  His sister, Cecelia, is the last thing from mainstream.For two decades she's made a living reading palms and performing past-life regressions.She believes firmly in our ability to communicate with those who have passed on. In Lunch with Buddha, when Otto faces what might be the greatest of life's emotional challenges, it is Cecelia who knows how to help him.As she did years earlier-- in this book's best-selling predecessor, Breakfast with Buddha--she arranges for her brother to travel with Volya Rinpoche, a famous spiritual teacher--who now also happens to be her husband. After early chapters in which the family gathers for an important event, the novel portrays the road trip made by Otto and Rinpoche, in a rattling pickup, from Seattle, across the Idaho panhandle and the vast Montana prairie, to the family farm in North Dakota. Along the way, the brothers-in-law have a series of experiences--some hilarious, some poignant--all aimed at bringing Otto a deeper peace of mind. During visits to American landmarks, they meet a cast of minor characters, each of whom enables Rinpoche to impart some new spiritual lesson.Their conversations range from questions about life and death to talk of history, marijuana, marriage and child-rearing, sexuality, Native Americans, and outdoor swimming. In the end, with the help of their miraculous daughter, Shelsa, and the prodding of Otto's own almost-adult children, Rinpoche and Cecelia push this decent, middle-of-the-road American into a more profound understanding of the purpose of his life.His sense of the line between possible and impossible is altered, and the story's ending points him toward a very different way of being in this world.

Lunch with Buddha

Roland Merullo

* Named one of the Best Books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews * Heartbreaking in places, hilarious in others, Lunch with Buddha takes its readers on a quintessentially American road trip across the Northwest. That outer journey, complete with good and bad meals, various outdoor adventures, and an amusing cast of quirky characters, mirrors a more interior journey--a quest for meaning in the hectic routine of modern life. Otto Ringling, who's just turned 50, is an editor of food books at a prestigious New York publishing house, a middle-of-the-road father with a nice home in the suburbs, children he adores, and a sense of himself as being a mainstream,middle-class American. His sister, Cecelia, is the last thing from mainstream.For two decades she's made a living reading palms and performing past-life regressions.She believes firmly in our ability to communicate with those who have passed on. In Lunch with Buddha, when Otto faces what might be the greatest of life's emotional challenges, it is Cecelia who knows how to help him.As she did years earlier-- in this book's best-selling predecessor, Breakfast with Buddha--she arranges for her brother to travel with Volya Rinpoche, a famous spiritual teacher--who now also happens to be her husband. After early chapters in which the family gathers for an important event, the novel portrays the road trip made by Otto and Rinpoche, in a rattling pickup, from Seattle, across the Idaho panhandle and the vast Montana prairie, to the family farm in North Dakota. Along the way, the brothers-in-law have a series of experiences--some hilarious, some poignant--all aimed at bringing Otto a deeper peace of mind. During visits to American landmarks, they meet a cast of minor characters, each of whom enables Rinpoche to impart some new spiritual lesson.Their conversations range from questions about life and death to talk of history, marijuana, marriage and child-rearing, sexuality, Native Americans, and outdoor swimming. In the end, with the help of their miraculous daughter, Shelsa, and the prodding of Otto's own almost-adult children, Rinpoche and Cecelia push this decent, middle-of-the-road American into a more profound understanding of the purpose of his life.His sense of the line between possible and impossible is altered, and the story's ending points him toward a very different way of being in this world.

On the surface, LUNCH WITH BUDDHA is a story about family. Otto Ringling and his sister Cecelia could not be more different. He’s just turned 50, an editor of food books at a prestigious New York publishing house, a man with a nice home in the suburbs, children he adores, and a sense of himself as being a mainstream, upper-middle-class American. Cecelia is the last thing from mainstream. For two decades she’s made a living reading palms and performing past-life regressions. She believes firmly in our ability to communicate with those who have passed on. It will turn out, though, that they have more in common than just their North Dakota roots.In LUNCH WITH BUDDHA, when Otto faces what might be the greatest of life’s difficulties, it is Cecelia who knows how to help him. As she did years earlier in this book’s predecessor, BREAKFAST WITH BUDDHA, she arranges for her brother to travel with Volya Rinpoche, a famous spiritual teacher — who now also happens to be her husband. After early chapters in which the family gathers for an important event, the novel portrays a road trip made by Otto and Rinpoche, in a rattling pickup, from Seattle to the family farm in North Dakota. Along the way the brothers-in-law have a series of experiences — some hilarious, some poignant — all aimed at bringing Otto a deeper peace of mind. They visit American landmarks; they have a variety of meals, both excellent and awful; they meet a cast of minor characters, each of whom enables Rinpoche to impart some new spiritual lesson. Their conversations range from questions about life and death to talk of history, marijuana, child-rearing, sexuality, Native Americans, and outdoor swimming. In the end, with the help of their miraculous daughter, Shelsa, and the prodding of Otto’s own almost-adult children, Rinpoche and Cecelia push this decent, middle-of-the-road American into a more profound understanding of the purpose of his life. His sense of the line between possible and impossible is altered, and the story’s ending points him toward a very different way of being in this world.

Contemporary

A hilarious account of one absolutely disastrous Italian vacation, a story full of illness and good food, cold houses and warm people, bad decisions, marital spats, and family love. True in every detail, it is the tale of a trip award-winning author Roland Merullo made with his wife of many years, their two young children, and his brave octogenarian mother as an attempt to escape the New England winter and enjoy Italian cuisine, architecture, warm weather, and each other. Shortly after arriving at their rental house north of Rome, however, the Merullo family finds itself neck-deep in a swamp of misfortune. A stomach flu takes hold of their younger daughter and will not let go. The house is freezing cold, isolated, and patrolled by a pack of pesky mongrels. Hoping to escape the situation, the family heads south on a 500 mile drive, only to encounter, among a cast of eccentric characters, more bad luck. Their ability to cope — sometimes — and laugh — afterwards — forms the heart of Taking the Kids to Italy.

Taking the Kids to Italy

Travel

Europe

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the AJAR Contemporaries publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by AJAR Contemporaries

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the AJAR Contemporaries publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Revere Beach Elegy: A Memoir of Home and Beyond

A Russian Requiem

Revere Beach Boulevard

Leaving Losapas

Demons of the Blank Page

Passion for Golf: In Pursuit of the Innermost Game

Lunch with Buddha

Lunch with Buddha

Lunch with Buddha

Taking the Kids to Italy