As good as it gets...
This book is as good as it gets. It can only make one want to be more noble, light, frolicsome and improbably beautiful...If you have ever thought you were watched over by something you have never seen, something holy and yet humble you will wish it is a Donkey.This book will strike you to the heart and saturate you with simple joy. I am reminded of a quote by Mary Oliver from one of her poems entitled, "Swan": "Of course! the path to heaven doesn't lie down in flat miles. It's in the imagination with which you perceive this world, and the gestures with which you honor it". If you think you know, think again, read this book, and be afraid of nothing.
Animals and Buddhism in one wonderful book
I loved this book. I feel the author is a soul mate, he gave up the rat race in New York and took a journey in France, on foot, with a wonderful donkey companion. It's a great book for an armchair traveler, anyone who loves aninals, and anyone who wants to share some thoughts with a like minded soul who is seeking peace and beauty in their life. And you get the added bonus of learning about donkeys. Highly recommended.
Be Patient - That's the Point
Merrifield sets out on a walking tour at a donkey's pace. He invites the reader along. And that's the point.
Don't read this hurredly. But be prepared to reconsider life in the fast lane and to fantasize about time in the south of France.
Merrifield quotes George Orwell's Benjamin -- "Donkeys live a long time; you've never seen a dead donkey," and it all makes so much sense.
Blah Blah Blah - Donkeys
"The Wisdom of Donkeys" is a good attempt at a novel idea, but it falls short of conveying any coherent meaning. It reads like a travel-logue mixed with high-school book reviews (repeatedly regurgitating scenes from Don Quixote de La Mancha). And what's worse, the author tends to wander off inside his own mind. The result is that the reader gets some lame James Joyce stream of consciousness about donkeys and life. Having said all that, the book is a good idea, and has its moments, but I wouldn't highly recommend it.
Persuaded by Patience
This is one of those rare books you hope will never end, so full is it of warmth and humanity.
Paradoxically, these virtues make it difficult to write about, because they are subjective and fuzzy round the edges. But I want to try, since I was wonderfully moved more than once in my bedtime reading.
A simpler plot would be hard to imagine. The author takes a rented donkey on a walking journey through the byways of the Haute Auvergne region of southern France. As the two meander along tracks and paths, Andy Merrifield, a former Geography teacher in British and American universities and author of the biographies of two 20th century French philosophers, and Gribouille, his donkey, form a kind of symbiotic relationship (though it may be that Andy needs Gribouille more than Gribouille needs Andy).
Throughout the story, the author makes reference to donkeys in literature, philosophy and religion, citing Cervantes, Spinoza, Anne Sexton, Schubert, Dostoyevsky, the Old Testament, the Koran and Aesop (among others), which provides a counterpoint to the journey that man and beast make together.
But it's Andy's feelings for Gribouille that make the story, for me, so touching and rewarding. He finds in his donkey the values to which he aspires--of patience, of calm, of acceptance of suffering, of forbearance, and for therapy (making the point that animals such as donkeys can be used fruitfully in homes for the aged, or sick).
There is great strength in the writing, unsentimental, romantic, perhaps, but, shining through, a calm smile of resignation at the folly of the world.
This is a book I shall treasure, and return to.
(6 reviews)
