Book Review: The Sage and the Gremlin

Reviewed by Alexandria Ducksworth

A motivational memoir that’ll make you want to pack your bags and see something new

Imagine you have the opportunity to travel to Japan in your 20s during the early 2000s. Teaching little kids might be a pain sometimes, but it can be worth the trouble if you’re meeting new people and experiencing new places. This is what happened to Matt Niner.

In this memoir, readers join Niner on his journey working as an English teacher in Japan. During his stay, he met other teachers his age from around the world, and he had students that were either perfect angels or tortuous little devils. 

It was a lot to handle for Niner. And getting homesick didn’t help at all. Niner had two people living in his head: The Sage and the Gremlin. The Sage was the positive figure, always finding the solutions to every problem. Meanwhile, the Gremlin wanted to escape problems without a fight. It was judgmental, impatient, and always angry. Niner began meditation as he lived in Japan. Little did he know this practice would change his mindset forever. 

People travel for numerous reasons. Some go for thrills, love, adventure, and others just want to relax for a while. For Niner, flying to Asia was a new adventure. How many people had the chance to venture through Shibuya or see Mt. Fuji? 

Japan not only exposed Niner to new people and culture, it gave Niner an opportunity to explore himself. Day by day, people too busy with their external lives don’t give themselves time to work on themselves. It’s either time to go to school, go to work, or take the kids to their after-school extracurricular activities. Japan gave Niner the chance to slow down and check on his internal world. His eyes opened, finally seeing what was going on in his head. It was time to finally silence the gremlin and embrace the sage. The real travel experience for Niner was discovering his inner light. 

Readers who pick up The Sage and The Gremlin will be reminded of Eat, Pray, Love or Sarah MacDonanld’s Holy Cow. Travel changes one’s mindset. It can be healing and revolutionary, and reading this one is a testament to the positivity you can encounter if you take risks—and trips! 

The Sage and The Gremlin is one of those books you can read on repeat before traveling out-of-the-country anywhere. Thanks to the clear and concise prose, you can visualize the places Niner visited easily. The people we meet along the way are quite memorable too. Niner tells us that traveling can rock our inner world. It’s not about culture and food that’ll change you; it’s about you.

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