An enlightening book about conflict that sometimes slips into a holier-than-thou tone.
A collection of stories about meeting conflict with Zen.
Viner, a social anthropologist, marketing strategist, and consultant, speaks through the voice of a fictional Zen teacher in this parable-based book about conflict. He invites readers “to view conflict not as an enemy to be conquered, but as a field in which to cultivate clear seeing, free of familiar distortions.” “Part I: Discovering Presence” introduces readers to the practice of maintaining awareness amid everyday tension. Through vignettes in which the narrator encounters people experiencing conflict and offers a non-reactive perspective, the author explores how compassion, listening, and validation help defuse conflict. “Part II: Deepening Practice” moves from simple interpersonal exchanges to more layered conflicts. “The Time of the Bamboo” finds a woman warring with her brother over their deceased father’s estate; rather than resist or deny her anger over the situation, the narrator encourages her to be like bamboo—not fighting the wind but moving with it. “Part III: Embracing Difficulty” focuses on loss, mortality, and moral contradictions. “The Last Window,” in which the narrator visits a dying acquaintance with whom he had a conflict, demonstrates that resolution is not always possible, or even necessary. “Presence does not depend on perfect repair,” the author states. “It depends only on the willingness to remain.” In “Part IV: Integration and Wisdom,” the narrator not only understands and imparts Zen lessons, he embodies them, emphasizing silence. He shares lessons on remaining, returning, and witnessing as ways to meet challenges. Viner concludes by reminding readers that “Presence does not promise a perfect ending. It offers instead the capacity to meet whatever comes with an open heart.”
The book consists of gentle nudges toward a more awakened, peaceful approach to life. The writing is spare yet evocative, philosophical yet accessible. The author asserts that returning to the present moment is a lifelong practice, stating, “Presence is built, breath-to-breath, through a thousand choices.” He offers wise and practical advice: “To address a conflict, we must first stop treating the surface alone. Ask not only what was said, but what has not been said.” Readers are invited to go deeper through insightful questions like, “What is fragmenting? What is emerging in its place? What was never viable before, but could be possible now?” The metaphors are effective and illustrate Viner’s points well, as seen in the example of koi leaving no trace in the pond, which conveys the importance of letting go after interactions. The author’s scene-setting is evocative, as when he describes a café where “the walls were cracked with salt air and time, and the windows looked out toward the harbor. The chairs were mismatched. The tea was hot, but not good.” However, some scenes feel contrived and drag on; the teachings would have been more impactful if presented in a concise format. The narrator’s unwavering calm, while aspirational, may be unrelatable or even irritating to some readers. Lessons like, “Each day offers its own unexpected turns, just as each tide brings different gifts and challenges to shore” may feel dismissive to those in serious tumult. Structurally, the book could benefit from page breaks; as is, one chapter rolls into the next without the pause of white space.
An enlightening book about conflict that sometimes slips into a holier-than-thou tone.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9798999573438
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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