Author Talk: Becoming Gandhi with author Perry Garfinkel

At 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 20th, the Vineyard Haven Library will host bestselling author and New York Times contributor Perry Garfinkel, who will introduce his latest book, Becoming Gandhi: My Experiment Living the Mahatma’s 6 Moral Truths in Immoral Times.

Perry Garfinkel is a veteran “journalist, author, speaker, NYT contributor, teacher, editor, media strategist, spiritual expeditionary, occasional drummer, and frequent bon vivant.” He is also a former island resident and MV Times Calendar editor, who wrote his national bestseller Buddha or Bust, along with dozens of NY Times stories and a major National Geographic Magazine feature, while living on Martha’s Vineyard. He now lives in Berkeley, California, but finds any excuse to come back to Martha's Vineyard. 

Becoming Gandhi is his fascinating quest to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s code of ethics in modern times―and to discover what it actually takes to “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi championed truth and nonviolence, led the struggle for India’s independence, and staunchly stood up for the marginalized. “When I despair,” he said, “I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.”

In the book, Garfinkel sets out on a three-year quest to examine how Gandhi’s ideals have held up in a world beset by troubling trends. “As I saw myself and society moving further away from a moral point of view,” Garfinkel states, “I wanted to see if an ordinary person living in the 21st century could, like Gandhi, follow a morally driven game plan.”

While tracing Gandhi’s legacy through India, England, South Africa, and even American communities where his spirit endures, Garfinkel attempts to follow six of the key principles that guided the Mahatma’s life: Truth, Nonviolence, Vegetarianism, Simplicity, Faith, and Celibacy. 

To many, Gandhi was a beacon of hope; to others, a lightning rod for controversy. As Perry Garfinkel found, walking (and even stumbling) in Gandhi’s footsteps can reveal how we each have a role to play in creating a more compassionate, peaceful world. “Being Gandhi is unattainable,” Garfinkel observes. “But becoming more Gandhi-like will continue to engage me as long as I live.” 

This author talk will be held on the main floor of the library, with a book signing to follow the talk. Refreshments provided by the Friends of the Vineyard Haven Library. For more information, please contact the library.