The Bruce Lee Story (Paperback)

by Bruce Lee (Author) "The first time I saw Bruce he was standing at the end of a long hallway at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington..." (more)
Key Phrases: jeet kune, wing chun, beloved art, Hong Kong, Enter the Dragon, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Here is the complete story of the great martial artist/actor Bruce Lee, told with great personal insight by Linda Lee with hundreds of photos from Lee’s personal albums.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Black Belt Communications (February 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897501217
• ISBN-13: 978-0897501217
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #65,988 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better Than You Think!, July 1, 2002

By	"takfam" (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

Like many Bruce Lee fans, I was dubious when picking up this book, suspecting it would be too sentimental and one-sided, glossing over the "true facts." However, don't be misled-- this book is GREAT. Easily among the two or three best Bruce Lee biographies, if not the best. Very well written, well organized, great rare photos. Linda does a fantastic job of giving us an idea of who Bruce Lee was, from the singular perspective of the person who truly knew him best. Sure, it glosses over the more controversial topics that have surfaced over the years (e.g., alleged drug use, personality problems, the circumstances surrounding his death). But you'll come away with a profound respect for the integrated depth of Bruce's genius, his commitment to his family, and his profound sense of integrity and character. And you'll notice that the qualities Linda chooses to highlight are in fact the ones that come out in his art as well as his screen persona. For example, here's a man who, feeling the weight of racial prejudice against himself, was nonetheless willing to physically fight a fellow Chinese for the right to teach Kung Fu to whites! That story is well-known, but the way Linda captures it illustrates Bruce's commitment to principles and his global perspective. Linda does a great job of balancing Bruce Lee as a profound philosopher as well as a uniquely gifted physical specimen. She makes you understand that it was more than simply his physical gifts that made him who he was. Perhaps Karate master Ed Parker said it best: Bruce was "one in two billion." In Linda's book, you'll be amazed at how disciplined, far-seeing, and erudite Bruce Lee was-- at such a young age. He was simply WAY ahead of his time. One could easily say that, through the medium of film, Bruce Lee singlehandedly effected a paradigm shift in the world's perception of martial arts, Asian males, eastern philosophy, and action films. This book is a very illuminating and satisfying read.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A touching insite into an amazing family, March 15, 2002

By A Customer

As a UK housewife with young children I have virtually no martial arts knowledge and read the book out of curiosity. I found a truly real book about an amazing marriage and an amazing couple. I think Linda Lee is as extraodinary as her husband. I am left feeling inspired about my own life and shall pass on little nuggets of knowledge to my own kids. This book is for people interested in fellow human beings and not just martial arts followers. It is testimony in itself that nearly 30 years after his death Bruce Lee has inspired an ordinary British woman.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Basically informative, with some mythmaking thrown in, March 15, 2001

By	Worth (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

An OK book, as far as propaganda biographies go. But if you want to read one genuinely great book about Bruce Lee, make it THE TAO OF BRUCE LEE by Davis Miller, which I recommend over any other biography of Lee. Davis Miller's book is beautiful, funny, sad, a pageturner, and it's the only book to sort through all the hokum and myths to give us something real-world and true.