Customer Reviews

A Magical Journey With Carlos Castaneda

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

 

 

While the book suffers from poor editing, I found it an interesting and insightful read. Perhaps I had expected to find a bitter former companion of Carlos Castaneda in Margaret, but instead I found an intelligent and caring person. Some of the situations do indeed show Carlos in a negative light, but he, like the rest of us, was a human being. I have been a Castaneda devotee for over 20 years, from the days when his books were regularly used in college courses as fact. As I've grown older I realize that we commonly don't want to see the truth, when one of our heroes turns out to be human. By these denials, we deprive that person of their wholeness, their humanity, with our dreams and expectations being the weapon. My view of Carlos has changed over the years, but maybe I'm seeing him with a bit more wisdom than I did all those years ago. Margaret's book included touching scenarios that revealed more about the man and the source of his philosophy and tales...like! Margaret pointed out to Carlos, the lessons of don Juan were the lessons Carlos was teaching himself. Carlos Castaneda is one of the greatest philosophers of all time in my eyes and will always be so...his struggles laid out before us, akin to Jesus' parables. These are lessons that can be used each day in our lives. Carlos' art turned out to be his life and our world is richer for his existence. Thank you Margaret, for writing the book. I think it is a fine companion for Carlos' works, one that helps complete the picture.

Margaret Runyan's book is a fascinating biography of a mystery man. I have read and loved almost all of Castaneda's work, but knew little in the way of factual events that led to his success as one of twentieth century's greatest writers. This is an interesting viewpoint; we can see what his fequent abscenses did to his family.
In it we see the portrait of a talented and ambitious man in search of truth and in search of a way to distinguish himself from the mediocrity of academic life.
We see the love he had for his adopted son "Chocho", and his wistful and sad realization that he did not have the time to be a good father to him. There were other things: i.e.going to the desert to see his "informant". At the beginning, it might have been an ambitious move calculated to distinquish his career, but as time went on it became an obsession to know the truth.

The reason I rated this book 2 stars is because of the amazing number of typographical and grammatical errors in it. It makes one think, didn't she have an editor, and what kind of publisher would let all these mistakes get in??!!

However, the book is an easy read and hard to put down if you are a Castaneda fan.It sheds light on many details unknown before.It should also be a good thing for detractors of Castaneda to read, because it shows the man's integrity in so many ways, in spite of his unwillingness to stand by certain facts (i.e. his lies about his birthplace/time etc.) He really did want to 'erase his personal history' much before he met Don Juan. She tells us about his early influences (including herself)and the events and people that led him to his famous path. Although there are some inconsistencies in her interpretation of who he was,she generally has a down-to-earth viewpoint, and presents him in all his contradictions yet as a good human being who cared but was unable to perform his family duties, in other words was a flaky husband and father.
I can recommend it.
A.

If you are a Castaneda fan, you got to read this book. Despite the bad editing/grammar, it was still very intereting to read. Margaret gives you an insight into Carlos' early days back in the mid 50's all the way through the 90's. I enjoyed reading about all the people that had an impact on Carlos' life from family and friends to anthropologists, professors, authors, visionaries, and don Juan. The content of the book appears to have been written with all honesty.

When I bought this book, I couldn't wait to get home to read it. However, it was a huge disappointment. This is a book about the author's feelings and reactions to Castaneda, rather than about the man himself.

Contrary to what some other glassy-eyed true believers in the don Juan myth seem to think, this book is not at all exploitative or particularly gossipy; it is merely a simple, anecdote-driven, descriptively written biographical account of, hands down, the greatest novelist of the 20th century--Carlos Castaneda. No other book that I am aware of contains so much information on the man or such insight into his personality, which turns out, not surprisingly, to be inherently secretive and almost pathologically deceptive. Thank goodness this woman chose to write; there is little enough truth in print regarding this type of thing in general and Castaneda in particular.

This is not a well-written book and (no doubt) casts more light on the author than on Castaneda. That being said, for Castaneda enthusiasts, it is well worth the trudge through the text. You can read beyond Margaret Castaneda's words and intent (which is not bad) and focus on whatever area of Carlos Castenada you might like to accumulate additional information. While there is not a lot there, what does stand out is that Carlos Castanda, like M.C. Escher, Eric Satie, and a few other harbingers of modern consciousness, was able to wrestle from his life a bridge for all of us to walk upon, his heart a highway for this generation. It matters not by what legerdemain he accomplished this feat, only that he by the force of his will, he did create this window for us beyond time. Reading this book was helpful in putting to rest a number of questions that may have been floating in my mind. - Michael Erlewine, executive editor All-Music Guide

If Carlos did indeed arrive at doing and not-doing by sitting at a typewriter, then all the more valuable are his insights, all the more available is the Man of Knowledge for me. I loved the book, reading about a part of Carlos' life. Thanks, Margaret.

What an insight into the life and relationships of Carlos Castaneda! His ex-wife writes of the times before he became an icon of the 1960's. Was he truthful or making up his "teachings of Don Juan?" Or, is truth somewhere in the middle? Did Castaneda in fact study with a "sorcerer" and write highly embellished stories of his experiences? The latter is what this book implies (at least, as I read it.)

There are many stories of Mr. & Mrs. Castaneda's relationship together. There are also stories of how he related to his son (or is it his step-son?). These are very insightful about how Carlos relates to people. In this book, that's not very well. Margaret Runyan Castaneda also does not come across as very saintly.

This book is a fascinating read for anyone who revels in the information Carlos Castaneda shares in his books. It's also worthwhile reading for anyone who questions or doubts the accounts of Carlos Castaneda.

Margaret Runyan Casteneda succeeds in little more than convoluting the mystery that already surrounds the secretive Carlos Casteneda. If you are hoping to glimpse the real man here, you will be sadly disappointed. One senses that Runyan-Casteneda hardly knew her husband (they were together only six short months), and it becomes evident she understands nothing of the man nor his life's work. Her perspective is simplistic, confused, and full of romanticism, nothing much concrete here, in fact, one comes away with the nauseous feeling that he/she has been fed a plate of pointless fluff, nothing is specific enough to be helpful. The only true value of the book is the black and white photograph of a young Carlos on the cover. In addition to the book's highly speculative and projective nature, it becomes difficult to tell where the editor steps in to assist Ms. Runyan-Casteneda, and which words are truly her own. The voice changes so radically through out the narrative,t! he authenticity and the integrity of the thing are quite suspect. I was angry after I read this cotton-candy serving. The woman took a small segment of her life, a very small segment, and tried to puff it up, with a lot of hot air and nostalgia. Definitely not whatI was looking for, nor what Carlos would have condoned. One thing is for sure, a man of knowledge did not write this book!!!!

I have read this book but all I got was a confirmation that Carlos is a master of stalking, he played several roles and kept stalking all the time. He stalked everything,,,including his wife.