Gurdjieff: A Biography : The Anatomy of a Myth

Rating:
Summary: What a shame.
Review: Gurdjieff remains a fascinating figure. Sadly the standard of writing is very poor. I don't know a great deal about the author but he sure ain't a scholar or academic on this evidence. Too much horrible, purple prose. Borrow it rather than buy it. Better still search for one of the few people still alive who can give a personal account of G.

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly and helpful objective history
Review: Having read this twice through, and having read a fair amount of related material, I must say that this is worth the time spent. Without getting lost in the ideas, the author introduced enough of them to be provacative and helpful, while covering the history more throughly than I have seen elsewhere. The book is very well written with good photographs and a great annotation section at the end which is particularly helpful. For those who enjoy fourth way reading, this book has a special place by mining some of the work idea vein while serving primarliy as a means of placing it in history. Definitely gives a good feeling of what an unusual, powerful and challenging man Gurdjieff was.

Rating:
Summary: Actually it's a good book
Review: I'll just say briefly that this book is the best biographic text of Gurdjieff available, and while it is a bit prolix it is not purple, as someone claimed. Actually I find it almost novelistically readable.