After reading Frank Kusy’s “Kevin and I in India” and “Rupee Millioneers”, I was hooked. I wanted to read all of this author’s books. Unaware of the chronological sequence of the travel-memoirs, I ended up reading the books in the wrong order.
“To Young to be Old” should have been read first. Yet if I were to do it over again, I would still want to start with “Kevin and I in India”, follow with “To Young to be Old”, continue with “Off the Beaten Track”, and read “Rupee Millionaires” last.
Frank Kusy is what one might call a “free spirit”. His mother had meant well when she sent him to a Jesuit boarding school, but for a boy with Frank’s nature, this had been a very bad choice. He felt like a prisoner, and his desire for freedom surged. The result: Once finished with school and college, Frank could not hold a job, or more precisely, did not want to hold a job for any length of time. This, of course, worried his mother. So in order to please her, Frank finally settled down a bit (at least, for a while) and took a job at an old-age home. And this is what the first 143 pages of this 181-page book are about.
You might think that 143 pages telling about work in an old-age home might be boring. I can assure you, they aren’t—not when these 143 pages are written by Frank Kusy, and not when this facility is about as crazy as Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Yet this facility is not only crazy, it is also quite sad. Improving the conditions for the residents seems to be a Mission Impossible. The newbie employee has to make a decision: quit the job or seek help. Frank chooses to seek help from Buddhism. He chants asking to be put in charge of this place. And his prayers, or rather chants, are heard. He soon finds himself running the facility, and now things are changing for the better. This is for the simple reason that Frank Kusy is kind and compassionate and that he views and treats the residents not as bothersome pieces of work but as human beings. Kindness, empathy, and compassion go a long way with old people, or for that matter, with people of any age. (I sincerely consider hiring Frank should we ever become in need of a caregiver.)
It is admirable how long our free-spirited author lasts in this job. Yet he is not made to spend his entire life running an old-age home. Not only Frank himself senses this. At some time, the most adventurous of the residents tells Frank, “You are too young to be old” and advises him to go and see the world. This is how “Kevin and I in India” comes to be.
“Too Young to be Old” only brushes this 4-months trip to India and, then, gets back to London, where a relationship problem is brewing. It has Frank throwing himself more and more into the arms of Buddhism while still living with his troubled Buddhist girlfriend, Anna, who has become a burden.
In an attempt to find wisdom and enlightenment or maybe only an answer to whether or not they should continue their relationship, Frank and Anna join a British Buddhist group traveling to a seminar in Japan. It doesn’t go too well.
But there is also good news. Frank’s book “Kevin and I in India” has been accepted by a publisher. And another publisher, also interested in the book but a bit too late to make the deal, offers Frank to write a travel guide on India.
Thus, “Too Young to be Old” has kind of a happy end. Yet if you wish to learn what happens to Frank’s relationship with Anna, you need to read the sequel, that is, “Off the Beaten Track: My Crazy Year in Asia”.
For anyone interested in my reviews of the other books by Frank Kusy, belonging to his travel-memoir series, here are the links:
"Kevin and I in India"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"Off The Beaten Track"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"Rupee Millionaires"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Top reviews from other countries
Marta Cheng
Valuable Life Lesson Among Its Pages
Reviewed in Canada on September 4, 2015
