The Hidden School

April 10, 2017
Millman completes his Peaceful Warrior Saga in this autobiographical novel combining intercontinental travel, colorful guides, stunning coincidences, and deep-sounding snippets. In the late 1970s, Dan, backed by a grant from Oberlin College to traverse the world researching mind-body disciplines, finds himself drawn to the American Southwest in search of a journal his mentor, a mystical gas station attendant he calls Socrates, may or may not have lost years before. With the help of a blind man who pops up everywhere, he manages to locate its mountainous hiding place and discovers he must fill in its blank pages. His next, abrupt journey takes him deep into China, to a secluded and secretive farm and martial arts school where a planned one-week stay morphs into several months of learning, working, and crafting his accumulated wisdom into brief, paradoxical statements. While the story is fun and engaging, the few nuggets of New Age spiritual wisdom are awkwardly shoehorned in and disrupt the flow of the story. Fans of Millman will enjoy this rousing conclusion of the saga, but others might come away feeling shortchanged.