no-brainer / Zen koan

Still Alice by LISA GENOVAを読むことにしました。'Still Alice' は映画化されたそうですが、話を読む前にLISA GENOVAの小説への称賛のコメントが多く書かれていたので、まずそこから引用します。
"Picking up anything written by LISA GENOVA is quickly becoming a no-brainer."--USA Today
LOVE ANTHONYについての評も書かれていました。
"Autism is like a Zen koan--a riddle without answer...with effects that are myriad, mysterious, and confounding. The same could be said about love...Everyone should read this book."--Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
禅の公案なんて、日本人の普通の会話でもまず出てこない言葉ですが、欧米の知識人には常識の単語なのでしょうか？　辞書の説明をみます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment.: Zen masters often use nonsensical or unsolvable riddles, or koans, to bring about enlightenment.
・Collins Dictionary: (in Zen Buddhism) a problem or riddle that admits no logical solution: A Zen koan: A hermit's cabin burns down in the woods; does anyone hear but the trees?
・Wiktionary: (Zen Buddhism) A story about a Zen master and his student, sometimes like a riddle, other times like a fable, which has become an object of Zen study, and which, when meditated upon, may unlock mechanisms in the Zen student’s mind leading to satori.