I recently purchased the following autobiography by a friend of mine - Robert Jay Arnold (a.k.a. Warren Fox) who is a lineage successor of Gao Baguazhang in Wu Guo Zheng's line in Taiwan. I had the good fortune to meet Robert twice in Taiwan, after I made contact with after viewing his videos in YouTube in 2009 and in order to connect his teacher with my teacher CS Tang. Robert is one of the most talented martial artists I know, having trained in many different styles and an amazing person. Thus I wanted to help him publicize his book which now also available on Amazon. Further details can also be found on Robert's blog.
As my regular readers know I do book reviews quite often and I do try to be fair when reviewing them, and I will endeavor to take the same even handed approach with this book, which is relatively hefty, coming in at over 500 pages. I read it over the space of about 4-5 days during the Chinese New Year Period.
Although I would take issue with the fact that he labeled the book a "martial arts bestseller" on the cover before the book was even available in print, it definitely compares favorably to many similar autobiographies that I have read, such as David Lowry's "Autumn Lighting" and "Persimmon Wind" or "The Way of the Saint" by Michael Guen in that it the prose is simple and easy to read, with vivid characterization and description of many different styles of martial arts and there are valuable training tips to be found scattered throughout the book. In fact reading this book motivated me to train with a much lower stance so much so that my legs ache after each practice, and I have definitely felt that I have "leveled up" (to use one of RJA's favorite phrases) in the past month or so.
The book can be read on a number of levels, the most obvious being "The Hero's Journey" where a young boy sets out to overcome a series of obstacles and learn something that is of great benefit to humanity, in this case the martial arts and Baguazhang in particular. And although slightly formularic, RJA does a good job of channeling the wuxia and fantasy novels where a novice trains under a number of teachers, learning from each until he meets his Master and his life changes forever.
For the serious martial artist, there are also insightful observations on other styles - specifically Taekwondo, Hapkido and Wing Chun, combat strategy tips as well as personal training observations which include those of other Bagua schools in Taiwan (not always flattering and immediately obvious to insiders as to who he is talking about). And RJA is definitely not an armchair martial artist, he has worked as a bouncer before and has been in a number of "challenges" and these are described in detail and in a light hearted way but we do see he does put his money where his mouth is.
But the book is not all about martial arts and on another level it provides a social commentary about growing up black in America, and all the various frustrations and obstacles that this entails. For me this was an eye opening part of the book, as I had not imagined that the Arnolds, as a middle class family would face such issues. Racial profiling, dead end jobs, institutionalized racism and the need to put on a certain face towards authority. From that perspective this is an important message that the book tries to put across and for the most part is conveyed with an absence of rancor. For non-Asians it also provides some interesting travelogue style observations about life in China and Taiwan.
Besides the martial arts there are other themes such as hip-hop, show business and how to succeed in the film world. There is material on relationships and how to succeed with girls. Religion also plays a part and RJA weaves religious themes into his work also, and Christianity strongly influences his moral compass and his view of good and evil in the world was quite interesting to me and quite similar to my own. Although he is not Buddhist, fate and karma seems to have played a strong role in this book also and RJA's refusal to accept the obstacles to his path and to keep fighting provided much food for thought.
On the flip side, as with many privately published works, RJA could have used a better editor, as the language and pacing was a little uneven. For instance I thought the amount of space dedicated to his college years took up too much of the book (almost 300 pages), and I felt a little shortchanged on his Taiwan years, especially his time with his Master which I had thought to be the core of the book, as this part jumps across years too readily and the reasons for many of his decisions are unclear. (Perhaps this is material for a sequel?). There were also times when some of his philosophical speculations were pretty cheesy and labored, but this was balanced by passages of tremendous beauty and insight, where I actually caught my breath and whipped out my highlighter, but on the whole the writing was generally of a high standard and kept me wanting to turn the page.
So all in all it is difficult to characterize this book as one thing - part travelogue, part martial arts novel, part self-help, I would suggest you buy it and read it as entertainment, and then go back and read it again, because there are passages that I still go back to in order to slowly chew and digest. I would not characterize the author as an intellectual but he is extraordinarily wise in life and we all have a lot to learn from him. I sincerely wish that this book to be as a great success as so audaciously predicted by the cover.
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