The Secret of Freedom [Paperback]

Vernon Kitabu Turner (Author), Linda Goodman (Introduction), L. Douglas Wilder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1994

Zafir, a black sixteen-year-old, undertakes a journey of spiritual discovery, relying on the wisdom of the Ancient Book to guide him in passing beyond the oppressive Others and bringing enlightenment back home with him.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing Company (July 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878901699
• ISBN-13: 978-1878901699
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,219,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A multi-level masterpiece, adventurous and inspiring., June 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Secret of Freedom (Paperback)

How can you describe a book which touches you at so many levels? First it is a good story that forces you to reevaluate everyday life and things you take for granted. Then it show you how the powers of this world manipulate us to make our own minds our worst enemies but the book does not leave us there. "Secret" takes us on a journey of liberation and on a no-holds barred battle for freedom and justice. The reader clearly sees that there are some things we must do for ourselves. On the surface, one might think Secret was a Black book but it is as universal as Herman Hesse's Sidhartha or Homer's epic tale, the "Odyssey." You read it knowing that it is cutting through our deception with the authority of a Holy Book, yet it is not preachy. We are co-adventurers with the main character Zafir. We see the truth for ourselves, discover with him, moment by moment. I recommend The Secret of Freedom to anyone who is trying to make sense of this world and would like an uncompllicated but clear account. Written before the movie, "The Matrix," it reflects a similar Philosophy, while showing us that the power to break free is ours already. You will read The Secret of Freedom again and again.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FREEDOM!, September 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Secret of Freedom (Paperback)

A lovely mountain-mist prose, exciting insight, race, discovery, self, freedom: these are his tools. The result is The Secret of Freedom.

I am a journalist who met Kitabu while he was in Jamaica and had an opportunity to review his book for a national paper....

Extending beyond our 'limitations' Secret beautifully and almost poetically defines the idea that self is a great thing, individual and untouchable -- a core that makes the externals (like skin colour) irrelevant.

Written with such self-assured insight that you begin to feel: "Right, RIGHT, that's IT!", Secret offers a gently prodding look at the old problems. It is exciting to walk with Zafir through his discoveries that freedom lies within himself, and that the imprisoned can be free, even while those who imprison can be chained. The 'secret' isn't a secret at all, but something that is known if you make any attempt to find it within yourself: freedom is the acknowledgment of self, that untouchable core. And Kitabu communicates all this in a simple style that offers a greater vitality to the strength of these truths.

The book is a communion with the reader. You feel the freedom here, than read about it, you become Zafir. I cannot think of a better tribute to an author.

It quite obviously doesn't hurt that the author is a Zen practitioner and martial arts expert brought up in a Christian home, who has studied and published poetry.

His work is a blend of all these, and adds a behind the scenes richness to Secret...

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One word, WOW, January 22, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (USS Carl Vinson(CVN-70) Persian Gulf) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret of Freedom (Paperback)

If I could write 1,000 words here about Kitabu's book Secret I would. However, I can't even put what I feel about his book into one sentence. This book is so many things in one, that you just sit back after reading it a say one word, "Wow." I very much wish I could convey my thoughts into words for this book, but I don't think they have words for what I feel. I was so moved. Thanks for another very well written book Kitabu.