Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude

by Neal Pollack

Overview

From Neal Pollack, acclaimed author of Alternadad and The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, comes Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude. Here is the hilarious but true account of an overweight, balding, skeptical guy who undergoes a miraculous transformation into a healthy, blissful, obsessively dedicated yoga fiend.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061727696
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/10/2010
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	8.24(w) x 11.28(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

Neal Pollack is the author of the bestselling memoir Alternadad and several books of satirical fiction, including The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature and the rock novel Never Mind the Pollacks. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments viii

Introduction: How Did I Arrive at This Ridiculous Place? x

Part I Find a Comfortable Seat

1 Yet Another Doughy, 35ish White Man 3

2 Smoothly, and with Ease 20

3 The Crystalline Center of the Hard Core 38

4 A Different Kind of Fun 56

5 Yogathon 73

6 Too Many Tibetans 83

Part II Rise Out of the Bayou of Your Pelvis

7 Somebody Seva Me 94

8 Have Mat, Will Travel 115

9 On the Cover of Yoga Journal 140

10 Bikram Begins 172

Part III The Wind Blowing Around Inside of an Idiot

11 Pack Your Bag, I Don't Need the Ag 190

12 Karma, Aligned 208

13 A Great Opportunity to Do Nothing 225

14 A True Quality Journey 237

15 At the Feet of the Dude-Ji 252

16 Ill (Not in a Good Way) 292

17 Club Sutra 304

What People are Saying About This

John Hodgman

“Neal Pollack has a well documented history of putting himself into ridiculous positions, but never so literally… If Eat, Pray, Love had been written by a sweaty, aging, male smartass, then that book might be called Stretch, and Elizabeth Gilbert would be named Neal Pollack.”

Editorial Reviews

Neal Pollack has a well documented history of putting himself into ridiculous positions, but never so literally… If Eat, Pray, Love had been written by a sweaty, aging, male smartass, then that book might be called Stretch, and Elizabeth Gilbert would be named Neal Pollack.” — —John Hodgman

“[Neal Pollack is] a yoga bad boy, a bong-hitting carnivore with a taste for laughter…a highly entertaining guide as he investigates the good, bad and ugly of the yoga spectrum…Both sincere and subversive, Pollack will likely inspire more than one reader to commit to yoga.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Touching as well as funny...Ultimately, Pollack lampoons himself more than the culture, and this is perhaps the most compelling evidence of Pollack’s conversion: his inability to be snarky about yoga.” — San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher

Touching as well as funny...Ultimately, Pollack lampoons himself more than the culture, and this is perhaps the most compelling evidence of Pollack’s conversion: his inability to be snarky about yoga.

San Francisco Chronicle

Neal Pollack has a well documented history of putting himself into ridiculous positions, but never so literally… If Eat, Pray, Love had been written by a sweaty, aging, male smartass, then that book might be called Stretch, and Elizabeth Gilbert would be named Neal Pollack.

John Hodgman

Touching as well as funny...Ultimately, Pollack lampoons himself more than the culture, and this is perhaps the most compelling evidence of Pollack’s conversion: his inability to be snarky about yoga.

San Francisco Chronicle