The Tao of Bruce Lee

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)