Rare
Not only is this a rare book but there is no other book like it. If one had to reduce the world?s books to the smallest number possible, this would have to be on the list. It is much more than the title and subtitle indicate. If art exists to delight and instruct and elevate the soul, this is confirmation of that?both in the writing itself and in the content and vision. The writer is a true lover of Story, a raconteur, and dilettante in the best sense of the words. He demonstrates in a running analysis the depth of a handful of stories from ?Abu Kasem?s Slippers? to Arthurian legend and Indian myth how Story can be the expression not only of our highest self and the culture from which it arises but of Man?s search for meaning and relationship to the whole of Being. But I do Zimmer a great injustice by trying to encapsulate his essence. The book stands by itself and speaks for itself timelessly. After you?ve read it, you will feel much more whole and wonder where you have been, why no educator told you of it, and how one can live a truly happy life without having read it.
