Book Reviews



FROM TRACY:

I came across Dirk's "Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy" a little over a year ago. I happened upon the book by "divine intervention" ( as Dirk says "there are no accidents" ), and I KNEW from the first page that this book was going to teach me something. In fact, it taught me many things, and also reaffirmed what I had believed to be true, in spite of others who would have argued with me to the contrary. Dirk was right about one thing in particular, one thing above all else he wrote in the book, at least for me. Dirk said that there comes a time when things will happen in their own time, he called it "getting out of the way". Dirk's book didn't make me go out and buy a bag of brown rice....at least not right away. All things must happen in their own time. But when I felt the time was right...for me...in came the brown rice, the kukicha tea, the beans and so on. Out went the dairy, the sugar, and the rest is still following. Dirk writes about the future generations of this planet and how society is "brainwashed" into feeding our children what we are told to feed them. And I, along with many, am guilty of this horrendous crime. Let me tell you a little story.

During the second week in September in Canada ( where I'm from ), all the schools across the country hold a week long drive for donations for cancer research, in memory of a man named Terry Fox, who ran across Canada twenty years ago, on one leg ( the other leg was lost to this disease ), until the cancer in his body had overtaken him and he was forced to quit. He died shortly after. So every year at this time the "Terry Fox memorial run" is held all across this country to "finish what Terry started". So every elementary aged child in this country runs in their own schools "Terry run" every September. This year in particular, my 6 year old daughter ran for her friend and classmate Johnathan. Johnathan has had cancer since 1998. He has endured two years of chemotherapy and radiation, and the pain of having a grapefruit sized tumor in his abdomen that doctors say at this stage is "inoperable" because it is too large for a little 6 year old boy, who wouldn't be able to survive the surgery. I look at my very upset 6 year old daughter who is now just grasping the truth that her friend may die. I realize that my daughter is no different from her friend, and that I, her mother, am slowly killing her. All things in their own time. For me, the time is now. I don't want my child to end up being another Johnathan. I don't want anyone's child to follow in this little boys footsteps. As a parent, we make choices for our children. More than a year after reading Dirk's book, it finally dawns on me. It may be a year too late...or maybe God has granted me, and my children a second chance. Maybe it's still not too late for Johnathan.....

I have spent the last year of my life putting what this man taught me into use.....but it's no longer about me. If any parent out there reads this message and understands, then Dirk will have accomplished something wonderful. Saving not only this generation, but all the generations that will follow. It is time for us as parents to make the RIGHT choices for our children while they are still tucked safely in our nests. What they learn now, will stay with them forever.

In closing let me say this....I BELIEVE. I believe every word Dirk Benedict wrote in this book. I believe this man cured himself of cancer via Macrobiotics. I believe it can prevent this horrible disease from taking another child from this already dying planet. My journey continues...and I plan on taking my children along for the ride. I am grateful, to say the least, not only as a human being but as a mother, for having Dirk share his journey. I highly recommend, no....I strongly suggest you pick up this book. If you decide to join Dirk and many others who like me finally "understand"....I do not wish you luck... I wish you life.


FROM SONYA:

Kamikaze Cowboy is not your typical autobiography nor is it a light read. Dirk's writing is a mix of honesty, candor and, of course, wit. You may not like or agree with what he says. Maybe you will. One thing is for certain, he makes you think. Dirk has reaffirmed many of my beliefs and has challenged others. Discovery I will find when it is right for me. To those who haven't read Kamikaze Cowboy, READ IT. You won't be sorry...but you will think.



FROM TEMP_CHICK

I really liked Kamikaze Cowboy! it is very good thanks dirk for being a great person.




FROM: MAGGIE

I cannot add to what you said -- you said it perfectly in your review. I agree with you 100% Those unique qualities that shine through in KC -- total and stark honesty and frankness --especially in the face of working in Hollywood, are what I admire most about Dirk. God grant him, and all others like him, the strength to survive the negative reactions of The Establishment and the "Flock" mentality. He is a true Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Soar high and free!

FROM YVONNE:

I found this to be a very open and honest reading. It opened my eyes to many things, including the fact that we are creatures who follow the pack. We let ourselves be brainwashed into following a select few. We allow ourselves to be told how to think and what to think. I was allowing myself to believe that the only way to live was the way my doctors told me I had to live. McDonalds and Wendys and the Texas T Bone was the best thing on earth! NOT!! I have found a new way to live which is actually the original way. And it is the best way for me. Praise God and brown rice!

FROM LINDA:

I really liked Kamikaze Cowboy. I have a friend who has cancer and goes to alot of doctor's only to be told that she has until perhaps the holidays or alittle after. I had been also diagnosed with it once and choose to ignore what the doctor's told me, I ate better and exercised and a year later I was cancer free all before I read this book.

Dirk said in his book it may disturb you to know that you can't trust your doctor, you have to take responsibility for your own health. This is the truth, I have had doctor's try to show this pill and that pill down me and it is a waste of your own money it never helped me. Cancer runs in my family and I have seen what tests and more tests and Cemo have done for my family and now my friend. Like Dirk said Doctor's don't cure anyone of anything.

Read this book it is definately worth the money.

FROM LORETTA CALVERT:

Reading both of Dirk's books was like sitting down with an old friend and playing catch up. What a relief to see in black and white ink, on paper I could touch, the thoughts and the truths I had discovered (and continue to discover). The most amazing thing about Dirk is not his looks or the characters he's played. He is a special person because he is totally consistent in his belief system (something rare these days and extinct in politics but I suppose that was true even when Plato was around).

This is not just a health book. Dirk's books are about the highest form of love--the love of one's self. You are no good to anyone unless you get yourself in order first. Only after you realize that everything you could ever need is within yourself can you go out into the world and look for what popular movies refer to as your soul mate. How can you find a perfect match unless you truly know yourself? How can you be an effective parent who guides your child if you aren't sure who you are and what you believe in?

I don't want to ramble so I will conclude with one other lesson I hope people realize from Kamikaze Cowboy and Fishing. Celebrity status (like money) only means what you think it means. Money is paper with ink in a certain configuration easily faked lately on good quality color printers. Celebrity status I don't even know what definition to give that now that everyone is getting their 15 minutes of fame parading their dirty laundry on talk shows. However, it is clear that celebrities are human beings. They get sick, they eat, they have bad hair days, they get acne, they sit in a bathroom stall like any other human being so -- wake up and smell the coffee! We are all human and yet we are each special in our own way. I am just as important as the flavor of the month and so are you. Perhaps someday the word will get out and star-chasers will break free of delusional fantasies to see that "today is a gift, that's why they call it the present."



FROM KATHY AMUNDSON:

I chose to review these books for two reasons.

The second reason is that one book touched on an interest of mine. Specifically, "Confessions" dealt with healing oneself through a proper diet. Dirk Benedict was diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 26 and cured himself entirely through his own efforts of following a strict macrobiotic diet. (A standard macrobiotic diet made of whole grains, vegetables, beans, sea vegetables and soups, along with guidelines to follow. For more information, go to www.macrobiotics.org.)

The first reason is that I loved Benedict's character of Starbuck he played on "Battlestar Galactica," the late 1970s sci fi series. A fangirl like me would have to own the books.

So why would you want to read either book, particularly if you were not a fan of Benedict? I think the person who should read "Confessions" is someone who is fighting a serious illness now, or wants to avoid one in the future. It is quite the wake-up call about how we are responsible for our own health, or lack of it.

Having survived cancer through his own efforts, and achieved some level of celebrity status, Benedict writes as the unwilling prophet of doom and redemption. He knows that it is only because he is a celebrity that his book will be published at all, so unpopular are his ideas. He knows there will be something in this book that will annoy everyone who dares to read it. He hopes, however, to plant a seed of change in the reader's mind. If his story can kick someone in the butt to change his or her ways and LIVE, then he has served his purpose, however painful and annoying. "Confessions" has a rushed tone to it. It is an urgent rant on the evils of the modern diet, processed foods, the American Medical Association and the American Cancer Society.

The book is quite personal and graphic, describing physical attributes associated with being profoundly ill. For the person who loves to read about the activities of the Hollywood stars, the book is full of Benedict's sexual encounters and he does name names. It may make some people nostalgic for the naivete of the seventies, before the intrusion of AIDS in the equation. The book is full of extremes and excesses. It is not for the prude or the squeamish, certainly. I had some illusions shattered, that is for sure.

Then I pick up the second book, "And Then We Went Fishing," and was surprised. Like night and day, it seemed to be about, and written by, a totally different person. This book was sensitive, almost poetic in its purpose. There is maturity in it. "Who wrote this book," I thought, "and what have you done with Mr. Benedict?" It interweaves the traumatic birth of his first child with flashbacks to the sudden death of his father when Benedict was just 18. Appropriate quotes from Hamlet are interspersed throughout the narrative, as Benedict repeatedly encounters the ghost of his father, who haunts him much like Hamlet was haunted by his own father.

I recommend this second book for the person who is intrigued and touched by the heroics and heartaches of being a part of a family. We are witnesses to Benedict's tender support, sweat and coaching of his wife in her 43 plus hours of home labor. He is amazed at the miracle of birth and in awe of a woman's power to bring forth life. Through his eyes, we are also shown his father's untimely and brutal death. Benedict's trauma, his unfinished relationship and his constant wondering if there was some way he could have changed the events that day are recounted and worried like a dog with a bone.

This is a psychological journey and Benedict is providing the Triple A Guidebook. No historical markers are missed. If this book was a way for him to work through and document feelings of loss, anger, and frustration, one gets the impression he is only part of the way through this process. In fact he is writing a third book now.

Go to Benedict's website at www.kamikazecowboy.com, read excerpts from his third book. If you are intrigued, by his message and his style, as I was, I recommend ordering the first two books.

Dirk Benedict is currently directing a screenplay he has written, called "Cahoots," which he describes on his website as a "a script that has been thrown against more walls in anger than any other in the history of Hollywood."

Should be fun.

If you would like to voice your comment on this wonderful book please email me and I will gladly post your review on this page.