Rating: 
Summary: Fun reading
Review: "I desperately need something to read", I suddenly recalled when I was heading for my favourite coffeshop. So, I popped in and started to look for something, and this book sort of beamed at me. I got it under the impression that it was a biography about Bruce Lee, but it turns out that it is more a book about Davis Miller's relation to Bruce Lee and how Lee has influenced him. It is very easy reading and a quite nice book, and at page 97 and onwards a small biography about Bruce Lee (or Li Jun Fan, which was his real name) appears. Apparently it is hard to find any books with true facts, Davis Miller claims that this one shall be rather close to truth, and you will learn that Bruce Lee wasn't the lonely martial arts master that one thinks. If you like martial arts in general, and more specifically Bruce Lee, get this book, you will finish it within a couple of days and it is fun reading.
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Summary: Top NOtch
Review: A brilliant book and a great insight into two very determined and awe inspiring people. A must for anyone who likes a really well written and interesting biography
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Summary: worth a read for never published details of Lee's death
Review: Aside from Davis Miller's own personal, very poignant, pithily written story in this book, 'Tao of Bruce Lee' should be read for the revelatory details of Bruce Lee's demise, so many of which have never before been revealed. This is the only book of consequence about Bruce Lee -- and a powerful yet abstruse read that should be honoured and learnt from.
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Summary: Simply mind blowing
Review: Buy Tao of Bruce Lee, and all of Davis Miller's other books! They are amongst the most important pieces of literature to have been published in the last 100 years! Simply mind blowing. And incredibly fun.
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Summary: beautifully written personal essay and social commentary
Review: First, this is a book that will unfortunately infuriate many of the most extreme Bruce Lee fans, though Davis Miller is very patient and gentle in his regard for Lee. Those of us who are less prone to accept Bruce Lee's martial arts godness are likely to be deeply affected by Miller's own very optimistic story, his commentary about the dangers of religious literalism and his exploration of the nature of myth, as well as Lee's cautionary tale about the myopic downsides of personal ambition. And many people who have had little interest in Lee or his movies will find that they are thoroughly captivated by Miller's storytelling ability and, in the process, they will find that they gain a real-world respect for Bruce Lee. "The Tao of Bruce Lee: a martial arts memoir" is the story of the influence that Lee had on the young Davis Miller and how the more mature Miller outgrew his childhood idol and finally what he calls the "sociopathic prettification of violence." In this way, and others, this book can be compared to the wonderful film, "Breaking Away," the hopeful account of a troubled teenager who is besmitten with the Italian national bicycling team and how, when he finally manages to race them, he is forced to outgrow his simple-minded romance and become his own (much more interesting and capable) person. Miller writes in a style that is accessible and enjoyable to almost every reader, Bruce Lee extremists notwithstanding. This book is an extension of his outstanding first book, "The Tao of Muhammad Ali," and since that book was published in 1996, Miller has grown significantly as a writer. Together, the two books can be seen as the yin and the yang of the same story. "The Tao of Bruce Lee" is a fascinating mix of serious personal essay, new journalism, memoir, and sumptuous old-fashioned storytelling that, in many ways, is unlike anything else that I have read, though Miller himself notes the influences of Joan Didion and Tim O'Brien, among others. And this is every bit as fine a book as Mr. O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" and Ms. Didion's "Slouching Towards Bethlehem," both of which are among the best pieces of American writing of the past half-century. "The Tao of Bruce Lee: a martial arts memoir" is a brave and beautiful book that deserves a large, mainstream audience. I hope that it can somehow manage to find its proper home among discerning readers who care about non-genre literature. Miller's new book easily ranks among the best American writing of this new century.
Rating:
Summary: interesting, refreshing read about Hollywood and celebrity
Review: Highly recommended. A short book with tremendous range. I'm noticing a pattern in the customer reviews: Those who can read and write enjoy this book, those who can't, and are looking for a simple-minded Bruce Lee biography, often don't, even though the story Davis Miller tells in the first half of the book, his own, is probably that of a lot of Bruce Lee fans. Davis Miller has written an ambitious book. I found it because it was an editors' recommendation at "The San Francisco Chronicle." It is not something I would have come to, otherwise. I am grateful that I read the "Chronicle" review and I'm anxious to read more from this new, original writer.
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Summary: finally!!
Review: i hoped for years somebody would write a book like this. appreciative of bruce lee but not fawning. it's good to learn that bruce lee helped mr. miller have a better life, too. a durn good read.
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Summary: Still looking for an objective perspective on B.L.
Review: I thought, the first part of the book about, his life and all, though boring, was well written..I thought, it interesting, about some of bruce lee's life experiences.. i just thought, that, the book, was alittle one sided, by using joe lewis, as a reference..he's really a bruce lee wannabe! His karate concepts are just copies of what bruce lee was saying years ago.. I thought, he sounded a little jealous! Then, towards the end there's a comparision, to muhammad ali against bruce lee.. Just stupid..Bruce Lee 145lb,at the most, to Ali' over 200lbs, in boxing.. Bruce lee was not a Boxer, he didn't train that way, that's not what he was..Boxer's have rounds to take out there opponent, streetfighting, you want to end it as quickly and simply as possible..Overall, the book, seemed to me, that this author wanted to try to rattle some cages, to sell books..
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Summary: Too Good for Its "Obvious" Audience?
Review: I would never have read this book had it not been strongly recommended to me by a good local novelist. How good is this book? It's one of the most thought provoking, rigorously written, sanely optimistic, and even sometimes funny reads I've had in quite a while. The author's chief problem is that this book may be too thoughtful, challenging and literary for many Bruce Lee fans, even though it is a speedy and "easy" read. As is true of much serious literature, this book should be cherished and shared. Unfortunately, that is often not the fate of tough-minded writing. In his favor, Mr. Miller seems to be a survivor. Perhaps his books will survive, too. This one certainly deserves to.
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Summary: What doesn't kill you . . .
Review: In The Tao of Bruce Lee Davis Miller attempts to strip away the layers of myth which have encased, and almost obliterated, the real story of Bruce Lee. The result of his efforts is a broader and more honest portrait of a man with an often-complex character. Miller also reappraises the frequently hidden extent of Lee's success, stating that, 'he became the first truly international film luminary'. Bruce lee's status, argues Miller, is comparable to other famous victims of ' the doomed pursuit of the (American) dream'. This roll-call includes fictional figures such as Scott Fitzgerald's Gatsby to the all too human icons of James Dean, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali. Miller charts Lee's life from his birth in San Francisco in 1940 to his untimely death thirty-three years later in Hong Kong. During the journey various myths are debunked. For example, Lee, far from being an only child brought up by an impoverished and widowed father, as portrayed in the film biography Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, came, in fact, from a show-business family, complete with a mother, and four siblings. Also, the myths surrounding Lee's early life which portray him as being the 'baddest boy in the Crown Colony' are rather questionable. The young Lee had to be 'encouraged' to finish a roof-top contest, and was in reality more interested in dancing, acting and girls than martial arts. However, Miller is perhaps at his most interesting when he attempts to unravel the events surrounding the final three years of Lee's life in Hong Kong. The picture painted is of a man living mentally and physically at full stretch. The path Miller takes with the book is in the form of a personal journey through his own coming of age story. This path is interwoven with the impact Bruce Lee made on the self-described 'geek' from North Carolina. For fans there is perhaps a temptation to skim the first part of the book to get to the more meaty details of Lee's life and death. However, this would be a shame since Miller offers some revealing insights into the flip-side of the American dream for life's outsiders; outsiders who dream of cars and girls, and fitting in, but, never quite make it. Although Miller tried his best to fit, for example, at Mount Tabor high school, he describes his wardrobe as consisting of co-ordinating golf caps and rows of almost fetish-like shinny shoes, he remained, in spite of all his sartorial efforts, an outsider. My only criticisms of the book are slight; a few well chosen photographs would have been a plus. Overall, Davis Miller's The Tao of Bruce Lee lives up to the blurb on the back cover. It is a unique and compelling book, just as enjoyable to re-read as it is to discover for the first time. All quotes taken from,
The Tao of Bruce Lee, by Davis Miller. (Vintage, 2000).
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