Hell-Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga
*Starred Review* In a narrative guaranteed to give goose bumps to chiropractors and their patients, Lorr announces one anatomic objective in the opening paragraph of this high-energy book, I convinced myself that I could take my spinal cord and bend it so severely that I could touch my forehead to my ass. To achieve his goal, he employs an extreme form of yoga that accounts for only 8 percent of the yoga practiced in the world, Bikram yoga. Bikram Choudhury is the leader of this intense and hot (the temperature of these studios is deliberately ratcheted up) form of yoga. Lorr describes Choudhury as a charismatic but controversial character while portraying himself practicing yoga for more than 14 hours a week and enrolling in a nine-week Bikram Yoga Teacher Training course that costs $11,000. His description of that surreal experience might make even Franz Kafka envious. Lorr’s appraisal of yoga culture and Bikram yoga, in particular, feels fair. He documents remarkable self-transformations—weight loss, enhanced energy, improved sleep. He marvels at the commitment of devotees. Back bending and bliss, stretching and sweating, bonding and betrayal have rarely seemed so complementary. Hell-Bent is sure to turn readers’ impressions of yoga upside down. --Tony Miksanek