How did we end up here?I saw it on the shelf of a liquidating Borders store, saw it was Christopher Pike, and I snagged it. It’s that simple. Except it was on the YA shelf, probably because it’s Christopher Pike. It’s not YA. The blurb on Goodreads calls it his first adult novel and there’s nothing about the text that would otherwise indicate YA. The protagonist is an older man going through a bad divorce and has a kid. Not very YA. And I’m okay with it. The cover is very YA but it’s misleading, as a lot of YA covers have a tendency of being lately.Okay, book. You've got 50 pages. Go!That blurb that’s on the back cover of the re-release is actually the first paragraph of the story. If that doesn’t hook you in I don’t know what will. The language is very straight-forward and incredibly compelling from the start and the second Sati’s on the page you’re drawn into her. She has this air about her that just screams confidence but it’s also this subtle light that’s so wholly modest you can’t help but be taken aback by it.Mike, the truck driver, is a genuinely nice guy trying to do right by his daughter and is stuck in this puddle of muddy water that doesn’t seem to want to dry up for him so he can either move on or move back. His story is honest without being melodramatic and he’s immediately relatable. There’s nothing not to like about this story so far.What worked . . .The mysticism around Sati. Holy crap, could Pike weave golden threads around her that just made her shine and be dull at the same time. And I mean that in the best light possible. She was both insanely human and questionably divine, many times within the same scene. She has to shower and wash her hair but stands calm and collected against rabid disbelievers that are willing to do her harm. She loves to bake cookies and go for walks on the beach and brings peace to the dying and a total, silent moment that stretches for infinity to those willing to accept it. She’s such a marvelous character and it was hard to stop reading because the sadist in me wanted to see how this was going to unravel. There had to be something here, right? What was it going to be?The changes she affected in people’s lives just by her very presence were wonderful to watch unfold. There was never anything drastically different about anyone but things just subtle enough to elicit change and movement in life other than just lying stagnant. She had a profound impact on everyone she came in contact with, even if the contact was minuscule, and her presence was always a positive one.Mike was about as real of a character as you can get and at first he’s riding Sati’s wave of positivity but he gets a crisis of faith and starts to doubt, most likely how any human would. There has to be something more to this woman, right? There just has to be. No way can she be god. Despite the positive changes in his life from the time she came into it he doubted but there was never any serious repercussions of that. No smitings, no power of god or anything like that. He ended up answering his own questions and resolved his own issues. Maybe not in the way he wanted to but everything came full circle, if not a bumpy one.What didn't work . . .Despite the fact that I ended up agreeing with a lot of what Sati was saying, the book did get a bit preachy there in the middle. A couple of overlong chapters basically have you sitting in on one of her meetings and you get a transcript of the questions asked and her answers. Beautiful answers but I definitely grew impatient with it. I think the point of Sati was made well before and after that in-depth look into her sermons. You already knew what she stood for and what she wanted to teach and while a little detail wouldn’t have been bad this ended up being a bit much. It wasn’t overwhelming because it was contained to, at most, two chapters, but it was nagging.And in the end . . .It’s a definite jab at mainstream religion so you need to go into reading this with an open mind. I’m sure people who are really religious would take issue with it because Pike does pass Sati off as a second coming, she looks the way she does because it’s what the world would find the most pleasing at the current time and he tries to crumble mainstream religion by basically saying it’s unnecessary. It’s not in an unkind way but in a way that kind of says “you’ve gone astray, here’s how to get back.” I can see how people would take issue with Sati. I didn’t, but that’s just me.It’s a very uplifting and yet realistic book for the topic it covers. It’s most definitely a palate cleanser and it’ll get you thinking a little bit but not necessarily in a way that’ll make you abandon what you already believe but just to make you believe it in a different sort of way. It’s a nice book. The world needs more nice books like this.
Michael Winters is a truck driver that doesn’t consider himself a truck driver. Then, one late night out on the road, he sees a young lady sitting cross-legged beside the road and picks her up. She ends up riding back to California with him where she starts to have meetings where she says she’s God. She doesn’t perform great miracles and she doesn’t ask for anything. She just speaks and teaches people to find their silence. And, of course, there’s some doubt as to whether or not she’s really God.And I’ll tell you what I really think:Scenery/Setting: The apartment complex where most of this tale takes place is a prime location. It’s a half mile from the beach, but it’s modest and everybody just about knows everybody else. It really feels like its own little community and by the end of the book, I felt like I had lived there at one time.Characters: An interesting cast. None of them were truly stupendous or even that original, but they were real and varied. It’s hard to break them up because of that.Everything about this book was just so simple, but not in a bad way. When the message of the book is about simplicity, I think it’s forgivable to have simple characters.You have Michael, your good guy protagonist, where our first person point-of-view is born. He is your average guy, which I liked. He didn’t have any outstanding hardships, aside from still having feelings for his ex-wife and conflicts with keeping their daughter. It was all just so normal. Don’t confuse normal with boring, though. And don’t confuse “average” with “bad.”Sati is what you would expect a writer to write if he was trying to write a peaceful, spiritual, comforting, blond-haired, blue-eyed God. She’s beautiful, but she’s natural. She’s graceful and serene and no one can deny they love to be around her. Best of all, she bakes. And her cookies are to die for. Michael’s daughter, Jen, is your typical finding-wonder-with-the-world little girl. I can’t say much more. She was a walking cliché, but again, I didn’t mind.The neighbors are each a cookie-cutter example of characters I’ve seen before. You have Michael’s friend from high school, Nick, that was a gang member before but a big teddy bear now. Then there’s his pregnant live-in girlfriend, an illegal alien. Fred lives downstairs and he still goes to high school, but Michael’s friend who owns the apartment building lets him rent his apartment for free because of the grounds maintenance he does. Lori is his girlfriend, and is such a stereotypical “neurotic teenage girl” I wanted to strangle her. Timmy is the gay guy dying of AIDS across the way. Yeah.I really can’t explain what makes them likeable because I recognize each one of them as an archetype that’s been run into the ground. I think it goes back to the simplicity of the book.Plot: This I enjoyed because there was a girl who lived in a town close to where Michael picked up Sati who matched Sati’s description and had disappeared about the time Sati appeared. It gave everyone reason to question whether or not Sati was God, even though everyone was doing that anyway. At least, they thought they were until they found out the girl in question was working at a strip joint down the way.Sati wins everybody over, it seems, but that’s not as irritating as you would think. There is the odd nut trying too hard to prove she’s not who she says she is, but she deals with it in ways that only further her point. It really should have made me want to rant, but it didn’t.She does her job well. She makes the main character grow. I see it and it was good. Just not stellar. It’s a very strange feeling.Overall: I am aware that this book isn’t nearly as profound as Life of Pi or anything like that, but it is an enjoyable read. I’m glad I read it. I’m even glad it was so predictable. It didn’t pressure me into feeling anything deep, though there was depth in there. It just wasn’t original, but I’m strangely okay with that.The lingering questions: Just what was Sati’s cookie recipe?
Do You like book Sati (1991)?
What can I say, I'm into Hindu/Buddhist/New Age-y concepts and that kind of stuff. Granted, Sati doesn't really tell us anything new, but the things she does tell us, are worth retelling. "Why be optimistic about the future? Why be pessimistic? Why not see things as they are? The present is always filled with joy, and love...If you were to live fully in the moment for only a moment, the stress and strain of your entire life would be washed away."“Enjoy your life. No curse hangs over you, nor did it ever. No devil chases after your soul."“Don't simply knock and wait for the door to be opened. Go look for the keys. Some fit the lock better than others.” “There comes a time for everybody when words and reasons can become such a great weariness.” “A true teacher would never tell you what to do. But he would give you the knowledge with which you could decide what would be best for you to do.”Yes, I practically copy-pasted the already existing quotes under Sati in GR. Sorry about that.At times, this style of writing reminded me of Paulo Coelho, but that may just be a coincidence. I read that Christopher Pike is somehow popular the way R.L. Stine is popular, and that he doesn't really have a great writing style, he just makes good stories, which is good enough for me. I've only read one other book of his, something about a teenage time traveller, and it was pretty interesting. I wouldn't mind picking up another book of his to pass the time.Anyway, I rate this 4.5 stars, because reading it raised the hairs on my arms, and I liked it, and I felt immense peace, which is something very important to me.
—Ceecee
This was a very interesting book. I actually didn't know anything about the book going into it so I was very surprised by the topic matter. This is a book about religion, sorta.Michael is doing a run home in his truck when he spots a hitchhiker along the road. A very pretty girl with blonde hair becomes his passenger back to Los Angeles, and surprisingly enough, a guest in his apartment. But then she declares that she is god and sets about to prove it, not by performing any miracles or healing people, but by just talking to them and trying to guide them to seeing her "true" self. And things go from there with more and more people coming to see her just to see the special aura she gives off and decide for themselves if she is real.Sati herself isn't really spectacular. But her words are. She's kind of just like she describes herself, a vessel. And I think Pike wrote her very well in this capacity. Michael I liked. He was charming in a way and while he had his flaws he did what he thought was right and actually was very pleasant. There were other characters of first, but I didn't really feel any attachment to them. They were just a wide variety of people who wanted to hear Sati's words.I'm not a religious person at all, but if there was a god, I'd like to believe that that God would be like Sati. I liked the way Pike put about the beliefs and what I'm imagining his vision is of God. Its a very encouraging view. Not always pleasant, but encouraging. And there is something very peaceful about reading this book. At the very least it made me want to take up meditation. I was actually surprised to find out this was considered a young adult book. Not that young adults can't handle deep themes but this one had some very philosophical deep themes. Those who take a more rigid view of religion may not care for this book though. Honestly my only complaint would be that the pace drug at times.This book intrigued me and I enjoyed reading it. I've not read any of Pike's other works but I think that if its symbolic of his writing style I'll probably give some of his other books a try too.SatiCopyright 1990247 pagesReview by M. Reynard 2011More of my reviews can be found at ifithaswords.blogspot.com
—Melissa
I've been reading Christopher Pike for 20 years now. We're old friends, he and I. This book was originally published in the 80's when AIDS really started showing it's ugly face. I'm sure, back then, this book pushed some boundaries. Rereading it now, where cancer and global warming has out-scared the public, it's a modern parable. Oddly, this recent publication of it has discussion material in the back. Are people teaching this book in high school?I would've never thought one of my favorite authors would be taught in school. Christopher Pike is great at weaving stories. It's not the language that gets you but the plot. Throughout his career he has dabbled in new age philosophies, and he tends to lean toward Eastern religious beliefs, namely Hinduism. This time, in "Sati" he plays around with the second-coming of God -- Sati is also a name from Hinuduism.This is not Christian fiction, however, nor does it slam any religious point of view. Our main character, Michael, who is a truck driver, is on the road in the desert and picks up a young blonde on the side of the road. He says he's going to L.A. and she says that's where she'll go, too. At one point, we also discover that she is calling herself God. This mysterious woman tells Michael that she will be staying with him. Michael lives in an apartment complex, and some of his neighbors are also his friends. They all become equally mystified by Sati, as well as skeptical. She begins to host random meetings, first in Michael's apartment, and later in a few different areas around L.A. She, first, has her groupies sit in silence -- this alone helps many people. Then, she talks or answers questions. A lot of her answers kind of go in circles, but people feel at peace when they are with her. Later in the book, she even visits with religious leaders who have come to see her. She also bakes amazing cookies. These cookies, we find out, are key later on in the book. Without giving too much away, it's an interesting book that looks at why people believe and the subject of blind faith.
—Evan
