by Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman
ages: adult
First sentence:
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The thing I like most about this book — and what drew me to it in the first place — is the title. I liked that they’re playing off of The Big Lebowski and Jeff Bridge’s role in it. I like the thought that the Dude is a Zen master. I also like the idea of Jeff Bridges as the Dude and the Bernie Glassman is a Zen master.

I don’t know what I really expected from this book. It is exactly what it claims to be: a conversation between Jeff and Bernie. Nothing more.

And that’s where the problems lie. Although we get a bit of history about Bridges’ life — his childhood, his marriage, his acting — it’s mostly just a long, winding conversation about whatever strikes the fancy of these two men. Which is interesting, for the most part. They riff (best word, that) on Zen, The Dude, Buddhism, acting, activism, love, music, politics.

What it’s not is linear. And (for me at least), that mattered a great deal. I think they tried to have everything tie into something Meaningful, but it just didn’t work as a whole. So, I took to reading it in small chunks. Which made it work better. I’d read until I got tired of their circular discussion (and honestly, of Bridges: he talks a lot — either that or Bernie is just a great listener — and he doesn’t always make sense) and then put the book down for a few days.

In the end, it wasn’t what I’d hoped it would be. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t terrific either. I’m going to be Zen about it though, and just accept it and move on.

It’s what they would have wanted.