Way of the Peaceful Warrior

When he was a young man, Olympic athlete, gymnastic coach, and author Dan Millman met Socrates, an eccentric mentor who delivered him from a young man's hubris and heartless pursuit of victory. This moving, largely true, story, with details admittedly drawn from emotional rather than factual memory, is told here with loving respect for the old man and his timeless ideas. "The warrior's life is not about imagined perfection or victory; it's about love," the athlete is told by his mentor. Living in alignment with the heart in the moment, free of striving and performance pressure, is the valuable lesson that channels through this somewhat long but well-told story. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Yet another first-person spiritual odyssey, this one from a gymnast whose shaman is an old grease monkey. That so many gurus in this kind of literature live humbly reminds one of the old New Yorker cartoon in which the society matron asks her capitalist husband, "If you're so rich, how come you're not smart?" To this observer, Millman is a bit young, his life too charmed to speak authoritatively about enlightenment and cosmic wisdom, but millions of avid readers disagree. However one takes his professions of sagacity, as narrator as well as author, he has ample skill and showmanship, though one gets the impression that one has heard it all before. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine