Robert Wright falls into the trap of many western / secular Buddhists - namely, in the urge to intellectualize and explain the doctrines of this ancient teaching while the source material itself often states clearly that this is not the way to go. There is even a segment in the book where Wright retells of when his meditation teacher advised him -not- to write this book, and he went on to do it anyway.

That being said, there were a few chapters that I really enjoyed and that balanced these problems. This book could possibly work well to spark an interest in Buddhism to a person with no prior knowledge to the matter but it should not be considered a book that helps one walk the path of Buddhist practice. After all, breaking free of our intellectual constructs and delusions by using intellectual thinking is, well, like trying to bite your own teeth.