The Laughing Buddha walks from village to village and hands out treats to children-he evokes joy with his own joy. Madsen's journey of re-creation serendipitously provides her with a personal version of the Laughing Buddha-she plays the fiddle in parks and waysides, and children's eyes-and adult's eyes-light up with joy. Madsen's previous memoir, "Guilty By Degree," ends with her survival of events that threatened not just her life, but also destroyed...