The Delight of Being Ordinary

A Road Trip with the Pope and the Dalai Lama

By: Roland Merullo

Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan

Roland Merullo's playful, eloquent, and life-affirming novel finds the Pope and the Dalai Lama teaming up for an unsanctioned road trip through the Italian countryside to rediscover the everyday joys of life that can seem, even for the two holiest men in the world, unattainable.

What happens when the Pope and the Dalai Lama decide they need an undercover vacation? During a highly publicized official visit at the Vatican, the Pope suggests an adventure so unexpected and appealing that neither man can resist. Before dawn, two of the most beloved and famous people on the planet don disguises, slip into a waiting car, and experience the countryside as regular people. Along for the ride are the Pope's overwhelmed cousin Paolo and his estranged wife, Rosa, an eccentric hairdresser with a lust for life who cannot resist the call to adventure - or the fun.

Against a landscape of good humor, exploration and spiritual delight, not to mention the sublime rolling hills of Italy, The Delight of Being Ordinary showcases the charming sensibilities of Roland Merullo (whose best-selling Breakfast with Buddha has sold over 200,000 copies) in a novel that makes us laugh as well as think about the demands of ordinary life, spiritual life, and the identities by which we all define ourselves.

©2017 Roland Merullo (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

" The Delight of Being Ordinary is a thrilling book, a rip-roaring, risk-taking literary tour de force that kept me up late and moved me deeply. Bursting with laughter and suffused with the divine comedy of the human condition, the story makes our complicated world seem a broader, more generous place. In this ultimate celebrity road trip, Merullo has written a love story for our times." (Susan Cheever, author of Home Before Dark)

"Another genre-defying installment in Merullo's engaging series of seriocomic religious novels.... Admirers of previous volumes will recognize Merullo's knack for depicting goodness without treacle in his deft portraits of the pope and the Dalai Lama, and a La Dolce Vita-esque party scene spotlights his ability to discern humanity in the most decadent circumstances....moving and unnerving.... Lucid, unpretentious fiction spotlighting the drama of trying to make the divine part of our everyday lives." ( Kirkus)

"A quirky but uplifting story in which Paolo de Padova, first assistant and cousin to Pope Francis, is asked to whisk away the pope and the visiting Dalai Lama on a clandestine vacation.... Merullo's newest is a thoughtful, compassionate, and mature work, a 'Christian- Buddhist-agnostic prayer' to the world, and readers will find a pleasant surprise in its conclusion." ( Publishers Weekly)

Thought provoking story, with laughter and tears!

Thought provoking story, provokes laughter and tears! Well read, fun story, kept interest- loved it!

Fabulous! Enjoyed every minute!

So glad I listened to this book! It was wonderful! Funny, uplifting, thoughtful. Narrator was fabulous! I recommend this book 1000% !!!

The incredible possibility of such an encounter!

This super entertaining novel is impossible to forget. Many plots are lost soon after reading but NOT this one. The implausible hope of this happening drives the novel. A hot favorite even a year after reading it.

Hope this is not the end of the story!

If you start with Breakfast with Budda and work through to this book, it is a great journey... 3rd time through and still find new insights. 60 years of reading everything and find this work the best. THANKS ROLAND !!!!

Fabulous Book!

Having read Roland Merullo’s trilogy of Breakfast with Buddha, Lunch with Buddha, & Dinner with Buddha which I throughly enjoyed. I was curious what this book would be about! What a delight! Humor, adventure, developed characters you learn to love, & a crisp dialogue. And a colorful backdrop of a road trip thru Italy discussing religion, philosophy, and a marriage on the “rocks”. The characters along the trip are peppered with a richness that is very entertaining. It has the suspense that it all might end at any minute and the truth is you could travel with these four characters for a very long time! I Highly recommend this book!

Feel good adventure

A heartwarming tale I wished to be part of. I smiled and tried to envision what might happen next; then was completely delighted!

can't continue this

I enjoyed all the (different meals) with Buddha books. I will have to buy this and just read it because of the narrator. He is having the Dalai Lama speak with a Chinese accent. Anyone who knows the history of the Chinese takeover of Tibet and how they had to run for their lives (literally) would consider this an insult. I do. so I can't continue to listen.

Wonderful adventure

This book takes you on an adventure into the not so ordinary life of two iconic characters. It keeps you interested in what each moment will bring as they try to experience life away from the spotlights put on them.

Learning to build upon common faith

This is a lovely story with spunk, adventure and great spiritual messages. I enjoyed listening to this ebook during a long drive.

Great story

I was interested in this book from the description and the reviews. It was interesting and funny in different places. I only found one thing I wish was mentioned. The Dalai Llama is portrayed as smiling all the time and nothing of any real substance is said about him. He does smile a lot. He also has a great intellect as well. If he had not been selected for the spiritual path his life has taken he would have been an engineer. Physics and other sciences are subjects he is well versed in and understands. He has also volunteered for scientific studies concerning meditation and they measured his vital signs. So, if you see something about meditation lowering blood pressure or stress and anxiety there is a chance he participated in it.

I saw/heard the Dalai Llama on the lawn of the US Capitol 10 years ago. An estimated crowd of 30,000 people were there and they were passing out bottles of water to everyone because it was summer. Richard Gere donated thousands of cases of water. Whoopi Goldberg was the person who introduced the Dalai Llama and he spoke to us for over two hours. He was fairly fluent in English except when he needed to understand something more clearly. It was a really special day. The Capitol Police were there, but they said they had never had a crowd that big with no issues. There was no clean up because everyone carried the empty bottles to garbage cans. It was amazing.

The narrator/storyteller is obnoxious. I would have preferred the narrator of the story to be different. The narration is ok.