Overview

In this companion volume to the critically acclaimed bestseller The Tao of Muhammad Ali, Miller turns to another iconic figure and seminal influence - film star and martial arts legend, Bruce Lee. Just weeks after completing Enter the Dragon, his first vehicle for a worldwide audience, Bruce Lee - the self-proclaimed world's fittest man - died mysteriously at the age of thirty-two. The film has since grossed over $500 million, making it one of the most profitable in the history of cinema, and Lee has acquired almost mythic status. Lee's was a flawed, complex yet singular talent. He revolutionized the martial arts and forever changed action movie-making. As in The Tao of Muhammad Ali, Davis Miller brilliantly combines biography - the fullest, most unflinching and revelatory to date - with his own coming-of-age autobiography. The result is a unique and compelling book.

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9780099779513

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A martial arts Nick Hornby, Miller is illuminating about the ability to transform oneself no matter what the circumstances The Times Easygoing but unflippant, formless yet rigorous. Solid reporting and sumptuous storytelling. Miller's is an American voice attractive to Brits -- Tim Birch The Guardian I loved Davis Miller's The Tao of Bruce Lee, a book about hero worship -- Tony Parsons, Author Man And Boy Daily Mail This fantastic second book by Miller runs deeper than an account of the author growing up as a 'karate kid' in the early 1970s. It is equally a study of the nature and role of the hero in popular culture, a poignant and unusual coming-of-age story, and an informative biography of Bruce Lee -- Ted Leventhal Booklist Davis Miller continues to invent a powerful new form of writing -- Richard Martyn Toronto Star

A martial arts Nick Hornby, Miller is illuminating about the ability to transform oneself no matter what the circumstances The Times Easygoing but unflippant, formless yet rigorous. Solid reporting and sumptuous storytelling. Miller's is an American voice attractive to Brits -- Tim Birch The Guardian I loved Davis Miller's The Tao of Bruce Lee, a book about hero worship -- Tony Parsons, author Man and Boy Daily Mail This fantastic second book by Miller runs deeper than an account of the author growing up as a 'karate kid' in the early 1970s. It is equally a study of the nature and role of the hero in popular culture, a poignant and unusual coming-of-age story, and an informative biography of Bruce Lee -- Ted Leventhal Booklist Davis Miller continues to invent a powerful new form of writing -- Richard Martyn Toronto Star

Davis Miller continues to invent a powerful new form of writing -- Richard Martyn * Toronto Star * This fantastic second book by Miller runs deeper than an account of the author growing up as a 'karate kid' in the early 1970s. It is equally a study of the nature and role of the hero in popular culture, a poignant and unusual coming-of-age story, and an informative biography of Bruce Lee -- Ted Leventhal * Booklist * I loved Davis Miller's The Tao of Bruce Lee, a book about hero worship -- Tony Parsons, author Man and Boy * Daily Mail * Easygoing but unflippant, formless yet rigorous. Solid reporting and sumptuous storytelling. Miller's is an American voice attractive to Brits -- Tim Birch * The Guardian * A martial arts Nick Hornby, Miller is illuminating about the ability to transform oneself no matter what the circumstances * The Times *

When you're the smallest boy in your class and your nickname is 'Foetus' it's natural that you be attracted to martial arts. Having given up karate when he received a beating at the hands of the second smallest boy in his class, Miller confined his adoration to Muhammad Ali till he was at college and he first saw Enter the Dragon. By his account, he then became a human sponge for Bruce Lee's martial philosophy, the 'way of no way', which synthesized techniques from Eastern kung-fu and Western boxing and used anything as long as it worked. Miller's description of his transformation from puny nerd, to super-fit and very accomplished martial artist is painstaking and heartfelt but, of course, it tells the reader far more about Miller himself than it does about Bruce Lee. The Tao of Muhammad Ali, his previous book, had the feeling of a boy's bizarre dream as Miller described his meetings with Ali and painted in glowing colours his burgeoning acquaintanceship with the great heavyweight. For all Miller's descriptions of growing up and bettering himself through martial arts, the best parts of the book are those towards the end devoted to Lee. Although Miller never met Bruce Lee, he has talked to his disciples and formed opinions about the global icon which others have not: how hard he actually was, how he revolutionized fighting sports and why and to whom he was attractive. This is not a standard hagiography, nor does it aim to debunk Lee. Instead it blends incisive biography with autobiography and assesses Lee's impact on the world and, more particularly, on an uncertain young man called Davis Miller. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Davis Miller is the author of The Tao of Muhammad Ali. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, Esquire, Sport magazine, Sports Illustrated, and numerous other periodicals. His first published story, 'My Dinner With Ali', was voted by the Sunday Magazine Editors Association to be the best essay published in a newspaper magazine in the US in 1989.

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