The Rainman's Third Cure

March 2, 2015
Writer, actor, and political activist Coyote picks up from his previous book, Sleeping Where I Fall, about his experiences in the 1970s, and details the rest of his life. Most important to Coyote's narrative is his Buddhist practice; a Zen sense of impermanence and placid acceptance permeates every page of this memoir, from Coyote's birth and immediately rocky upbringing in 1941 to his contemporary life at San Francisco Zen Center. Those unfamiliar with Coyote's life and wishing to know more about his time with the anarchist improv group Diggers will be disappointed; Coyote frequently refers readers to his previous book, making this one difficult to appreciate in its own right. But it's interesting to follow Coyote's careful, step-by-step unraveling of his own psyche and emotional constructs, and fellow students of Zen will especially appreciate Coyote's breakdown of meditative retreats and flashes of enlightenment.

February 1, 2015
An imperious and flawed father figure looms large in Coyote's artfully rendered chronicle of his intriguing journey from confused, privileged youth to enlightened Zen practitioner.Not long ago, Coyote, international screen star and veteran countercultural revolutionary, had a transcendental experience that he had arguably been searching for his entire life. But while the author's Buddhist practice is a vital component of his often descriptively brilliant biographical odyssey, it is by no means the only one. Coyote's story, the follow-up to Sleeping Where I Fall (1998), is as much about a boy's initial introduction to the great wide world as it is about one complex human being's lifelong hunger for inner meaning. Coyote presents a fascinatingly intricate portrait of what it was like being the peculiar scion of wealth and power. As a child, the young Peter Cohon found himself languishing in neglect, floating in the staid world of his conflicted parents, Morris and Ruth. Soon, however, he was propelled headlong into a parallel existence where he met lively figures hired to run the family's Turkey Hill farm and Englewood, New Jersey, abode. "For the next ten years [caretaker] Susie Howard was the North Star around which my heavens revolved." The impressionable young boy eventually encountered jazz legends, intellectual radicals and rough-hewn outdoorsmen. In addition to an imposing gangster uncle, each of these individuals managed to shape the boy who would later become not only a central figure in America's nascent youth movement, but also a dusty pioneer in communal living, a left-wing rabble-rouser working inside the political system, and a struggling father trying to support a family with a heroin monkey on his back. Astonishingly, well into middle age, the author accomplished another remarkable turn, evolving into the well-respected film actor many know him as today. Presented with so many well-defined faces, there's guaranteed to be at least one Coyote, and probably more, that readers enjoy meeting.

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Starred review from June 1, 2015

Best known now as an actor, voice-over artist, and documentary film narrator, Coyote (Sleeping Where I Fall) has lived a varied life. In the 1960s, he rejected his wealthy background by becoming a founding member of the Diggers, an anarchist theater group based in San Francisco, whose basic tenet states that everything should be free. This book, Coyote's second, focuses specifically on his upbringing and his discovery of Zen Buddhism. His early life, while unpleasant, seems to have taught him to be self-sufficient. Coyote's father was domineering, distant, and at times abusive, while his mother suffered a nervous breakdown, from which she never seemed to recover, early in the author's life. Zen helped Coyote rediscover value in his life, after years of drug abuse and living in dirty and impoverished conditions. He honestly describes his initiation into spiritual thought and practice, not making it sound either easy, nor entirely pleasant. In particular, he explains how his mind struggles with the formality of Zen. Having experienced such an undisciplined and unstructured life up until his early to mid-30s, Coyote learns to see the benefit in rules over time. VERDICT Remarkably forthright and insightful, this memoir may inspire others to add a bit of Zen to their lives. [See Memoir, 3/12/15; ow.ly/MBDBz/.]--Derek Sanderson (DS)

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