Strange Life of Ivan Osokin [Paperback]

P.D. Ouspensky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2004

Here is the story of Ivan Osokin, a young man who has squandered every chance life has given him.  A fail­ure at school, ruined financially, and rejected by the woman he loves, he finds himself at a dead end. He wishes to live his life over again so he can avoid all his mistakes. Then he meets a magician who gives him that chance. "Strange Life of Ivan Osokin, while not the original inspiration for our film Groundhog Day, was one of those confirming cos­mic affirmations that we had indeed tapped into one of the great universal problems of being. In a novel that itself reads like a very entertaining high-concept film, Ouspensky suggests the anti­dote to the existential dilemma at the core of Groundhog Day: that trapped as we are on the karmic wheel of cause and effect, our only means of escape is to assume responsibility for our own destiny and find the personal meaning that imparts a purposeful vitality to life and frees us from the limitations of our contempt."-Harold Ramis, filmmaker

Editorial Reviews

Review

A brilliant fantasy ... written to illustrate the theme that we do not live life but that life lives us. -- The Manchester Guardian

Confronting the deepest mysteries of time, Ouspensky's novel offers ... one possibility of returning to what we are meant to be. -- Jacob Needleman, author of The American Soul

Ouspensky’s seminal work has set off shivers of recognition ... unsettling, and mysterious. -- John Shirley, author of Demons and Darkness Divided

About the Author

P. D. Ouspensky (1878-1947) was one of the seminal thinkers of the twentieth century and one of the first in the modern era to explore questions of higher consciousness and personal transformation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 194 pages
• Publisher: Lindisfarne Books (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584200057
• ISBN-13: 978-1584200055
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,740,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, Defective edition, January 10, 2003

By 

Ian Elliott (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strange Life of Ivan Osokin (Paperback)

This is a very interesting novel, but I gave it one star because I am rating the edition instead. Lindisfarne Books should be razed by fire and the editors suspended over a slow barbecue. They went to great lengths to provide the book with an arresting cover, interesting typeface for the chapter title, and lively (if uninformed) review notices on the back cover, but were so slipshod in their copy editing that they omitted words from the author's text in the first sentence of the first chapter! I kid you not, this book starts with a phrase, not a sentence! Fortunately it is about living your life over again, so the complete sentence reappears correctly on page 162 at the beginning of chapter 26. But such errors are unacceptable and unforgiveable in an editor, and can lead in time to a loss of the complete text itself, as any classical scholar can tell you, if you can find any these days. Don't buy this edition!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great novel, unclear on whether this version is good, April 3, 2005

By 

Blusuede (NYC, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strange Life of Ivan Osokin (Paperback)

Cannot vouch for this particular version of the book, but get a good copy somewhere, as it is worth it. If you like Kundera, have a fondness for Nietzsche, enjoyed the Bill Murray movie "Groundhog's Day," or sit there mulling over the towering pronouncement from Rilke's "Archaic Torso of Apollo," : 'You must change your life!' then this is the book for you. Even if none of the above apply to you, just take a chance on this slim novel. While I wouldn't recommend the entire mystical theosophist movement that propelled Ouspensky, this work will never quite leave you -- my criterion for a work of great art.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Book, January 18, 2008

By 

Alyssa (San Rafael, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Strange Life of Ivan Osokin (Paperback)

As soon as I read the first page of this book I loved it. I heard it's the book that the movie "Goundhog Day" was inspired by.