Customer Reviews

The Beaten Path: Field Notes on Getting Wise in a Wisdom-Crazy World

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoyed reading this book about the author. Good humor. Notes to myself: brush up on vocabulary.

He blends his personal typical teenage experiences with his search for wisdom. The book is broken in small titles going back and forth from what he's learned from books and the personal experiences he encounters. It's easy to pick up and put down as time permits because of this. The ending was a bit of a disappointment. But then again, the book was just what his title said it was....field notes, not a thorough autobiography. His conclusion was weak.

Mostly a rather silly romp through a handful of life philosophies on the premise that there is an esoteric path to enlightenment, and the job is to keep trying one after the other until you find the one that works for you. After taking some time (most of the book)setting up this straw man, Tompkins knocks it over convincingly. Until I got to the last chapter I was fully prepared to be very disappointed. That chapter takes a very good shot at answering the question, "what's it all about?" If you are looking for insights, wrap the Huxley quote, the Hun Tun story, and the highway/service road analogy up together and give yourself a treat. Its a lesson on Buddah's "middle way", and skillfully the author avoids the label. Its an important book for anyone like myself who has been attracted to the lonely detour of wisdom.

The last chapter twist is a pleasant surprise if you are already aware of what he reveals there, and a rude awakening if you are not. Either way, a re-read is called for to fully get the message of the book. Written as a retrospective of the author's youth (and self-confessed folly), we will see glimpses of ourselves and all the silly things we believed as children.

Might just as well have given it 5 stars but I have to fault the author for being just a bit, boring, between the good bits. Still a great effort and a great book to have.

I tried to like this book, but he seems to be contradicting himself. Writing yet another life-path novel. His insights are shallow, memoir less than exciting and overall conclusion a disappointment.

The basic desire to have an answer is one shared by all.Tompkins isn't satisfied with "hand me down" answers and sets out to find one of his own.Like many of us his need for an answer leads him to those who have professed to have one....and like many of us he becomes disenchanted with the results of his search.Somehow many of these searches for wisdom have one similarity, it is " a process" . Management of this process,by lack of acceptance,compulsion,denial or self-absorption.....doesn't work.