Says reviewer Rigoberto Gonzalez, "Ira Sukrungruang's Buddha's Dog & other Meditations charts one man s journey toward emotional maturity, to a place of knowledge though not necessarily of comfort. These marvelous essays weather with heart and humor the tumultuous waters of cultural identity, body image, and mortality, to arrive at those bittersweet truths about our flawed yet spirited selves. -

Ira Sukrungruang is a Thai American writer born in 1976 in Oak Lawn, Illinois, a suburb just south of Chicago. He spent most of his childhood eating at McDonalds, playing Nintendo, watching kung fu movies, and writing horrendous unrequited love stories.