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Meetings with Remarkable Men, G. I. Gurdjieff's autobiographical account of his youth and early travels, has become something of a legend since it was first published in 1963. A compulsive "read" in the tradition of adventure narratives, but suffused with Gurdjieff's unique perspective on life, it is organized around portraits of remarkable men and women who aided Gurdjieff's search for hidden knowledge or accompanied him on his journeys in remote parts of the Near East and Central Asia. This is a book of lives, not doctrines, although readers will long value Gurdjieff's accounts of conversations with sages. Meetings conveys a haunting sense of what it means to live fully--with conscience, with purpose, and with heart. Among the remarkable individuals whom the reader will come to know are Gurdjieff's father (a traditional bard), a Russian prince dedicated to the search for Truth, a Christian missionary who entered a World Brotherhood deep in Asia, and a woman who escaped white slavery to become a trusted member of Gurdjieff's group of fellow seekers. Gurdjieff's account of their attitudes in the face of external challenges and in the search to understand the mysteries of life is the real substance of this classic work.… (more)
User reviews
The rest of the sections are fantastic tales in themselves, and are very well told. This is why I give the book a four star rating. The writing style is much more accessible than the way that he wrote about Beelzebub's tales, and this is something that I like. I think that he made Beelzebub a bit too complex, that he made it complex for the sake of complexity.
I cannot say that I learned much from the book, barring the section on his father and teacher. But, the book is a joyous ride indeed. It is the story of a life fully lived.