Crap or fertilizer?
From Amazon:
During his junior year at the University of California, Dan Millman first stumbled upon his mentor (nicknamed Socrates) at an all-night gas station. At the time, Millman hoped to become a world-champion gymnast. "To survive the lessons ahead, you're going to need far more energy than ever before," Socrates warned him that night. "You must cleanse your body of tension, free your mind of stagnant knowledge, and open your heart to the energy of true emotion." From there, the unpredictable Socrates proceeded to teach Millman the "way of the peaceful warrior." At first Socrates shattered every preconceived notion that Millman had about academics, athletics, and achievement. But eventually Millman stopped resisting the lessons, and began to try on a whole new ideology--one that valued being conscious over being smart, and strength in spirit over strength in body.
Although the character of the cigarette-smoking Socrates seems like a fictional, modern-day Merlin, Millman asserts that he is based on an actual person. Certain male readers especially appreciate the coming-of-age theme, the haunting love story with the elusive woman Joy, and the challenging of Western beliefs about masculine power and success. --Gail Hudson
Warrior is one of the few books that I deliberately read before seeing the film. With Nick Nolte and Amy Smart in the trailer, it looked great, a must-see. The reviews on the early pages boldly proclaim how the book can have a profound effect on one's life. I tore into it with high expectations. In retrospect, many of the reviews I've seen about this book are polar. Either it has a powerful impact on the reader, or it's just a waste of time. On the outset, I was expecting the former. Unfortunately, I walked away with the latter.
The autobiographical journey we embark on with Millman is certainly unique. He overcomes adversity, goes through enormous personal growth, and ultimately makes a powerful transition into adulthood. But the book is less than the sum of its parts. It does not have any powerful revelations, lacks any great or meaningful insight, and fails to deliver any message worthy of the praise and hype which surround it. In short, to quote Bierce, the covers of this book are too far apart.
Millman's deliberately slow, loquacious style of writing makes you wonder if he graduated from the Stephen King Diarrhea of the Word Processor school of writing. Could he have dragged it on any longer? And what a fantastic and improbable tale he weaves. Is Socrates real, did he do what Millman describes, and where did Millman get this delusion? The entire experience is such a huge crock. It's a revolting work, and a huge, HUGE letdown.
This book is the biggest disappointment I've read in ages. It sucked more than the vacuum of space. Dan Millman did some bad acid, and we're paying the price. I want my bloody money back. Millman is a fraud. And so are the reviewers, if they even exist, who give their testimony in the front of the book.
You couldn't pay me to watch the film.
Grade: F
Keep in mind that YRMV
