2020-06-12
It’s taken me over thirty years to read this book since it was first recommended to me. I should have read it then – it could have been illuminating.
However, reading it in middle-age it just reads as a rushed and lacking depth. Big concepts are thrown about with abandon – one moment the seagull is fixated on speed, the next it’s about freedom, the next is about thought over matter, then it ends with a simple analogy about Jesus.
None of it really mixes together for me, and it lacks the deeper introspection of other contemporary writers of the late 60’s such as Timothy Leary and Carlos Castaneda. It probably doesn’t help that this is only a short-story (padded with photos of seagulls at that) rather than a longer work, and it shows.
Like LOTR, this is probably a book you need to read at a certain young age to appreciate – but once your own personal philosophy and spirituality become well-developed, this book can feel somewhat lacking.
Rating: 2/5