CompleteMartialArts.com - The Monk From Brooklyn: An American At The Shaolin Temple
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List Price: $16.99
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Manufacturer: Gom Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 200
EAN: 9781932966107
ISBN: 1932966102
Label: Gom Press
Manufacturer: Gom Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 315
Publication Date: 2004-07-30
Publisher: Gom Press
Studio: Gom Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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Antonio Graceffo was lucky enough to be one of the few, and this is the chronicle of his experience. Antonio has twenty-five years of experience with martial arts, so it is with a knowing eye that he observed the training at the temple. But it is his background that gives him a very unique perspective. An Italian-American from Brooklyn, New York, and a former investment banker, Antonio was educated in some of the best universities that Europe and Asia had to offer. His articles are informative, humorous, and irreverent. He doesn't pull any punches writing about the filthy conditions and the diminished mental capacities of people who spent a lifetime learning to kick, but never bothered to learn to read and write. The title says it all. Put a Chinese-speaking Italian-American, from Brooklyn in the holiest of Buddhist temples, and watch the racial harmony flow.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Compare with Polley's American Shaolin...
Comment: Graceffo has his moments, but this book reads like a prolonged griping session. The excerpts I had previously read in martial arts magazines suggested that this would be a wry perspective on the Shaolin experience, but reading the book is tough going. Graceffo finds most of the Chinese people he deals with annoying, and seems to resent their presence. This is somewhat odd since he chose to go there, and it is their country, after all. I would also have expected that his time in Taiwan would have prepared him for some of the attitudes he encountered on the mainland.
He chose to live in the school with the students, but then proceeded to detail the experience as an imposition. Of course two alternatives existed: leave, or at least move to some alternative housing. Traveling there without adequate cash reserves seems to have occasioned most of his misery and insecurity, but it was not as if he didn't have the resources. This failure to plan colors much of his perspective for the rest of the book. Some travel writers do a much better job of adapting to circumstances, so much of this reads like an extended experience of culture shock.
Not to dispute the author's experiences. I am sure they all happened, but I am not sure the students and many of the people he dealt with deserved some of the criticism they came under here.
If you are interested in kungfu, you won't find much here, aside from the author teaching his own brand of Brooklyn 'kungfu'. He was apparently not much impressed with techniques he saw there, and frequently made the observation that the kungfu practiced there wouldn't stand up in a street fight.
Other reviewers have stated that this would have been better suited to appear as a magazine article, and I would agree with that. Even as an article, the gist of this work would probably turn off most readers, except for convicted Sinophobes.
One would do better, I think, to read Matthew Polley's "American Shaolin", which does not gloss over the discomforts of life in China or shaolin training, but shows that Polley genuinely seems to have made an effort to bridge the cultural gap, rather than retreating into a fortress mentality.
I suppose that goes to say that both books are more about culture shock and how one deals with it, as opposed to being about the martial arts.
The other aspect of this book that is somewhat disagreeable is that the author often seems to be touting himself as superior to the Chinese, based upon his income, education, or worldliness. But I often felt as if the author was injecting that persona also to show his readers what a great guy he is. This self-promotion seemed very out-of-place to me, but maybe not to most readers.
Still, parts of this book are very amusing and interesting, so it certainly rates a look.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Reads More Like One Long Article Rather Than A Book
Comment: Its my understanding that this book came to be from a series of articles that the author did and it certainly feels like one long article. In fact if one does a web search, you will find those articles online.
To be fair, this is a very addictive book and I wanted so much to like it. It is an interesting story and the author does come across as being charismatic, worldly and interesting. I did enjoy his insightful comments about Kung Fu. As I also study the martial arts and live in Brooklyn, I thought there was a lot for me to like but in the end I found it to be a very disappointing.
This book is incredibly repetitive. For example you are constantly reminded that the author feels that rural Chinese are filthy, backwards and self-centered people. That Chinese Kung Fu for the most part is so stuck in its past and glory that it cannot feasibly compete against many of the today's mix martial artists. That daily communication with rural Chinese is repetitive and frustrating and is indicative of their mental capabilities. While I have no problem with someone who tells it like it is after several times it starts to sound like constant complaining.
One of the most frustrating issues with this book is that you never really know who the author is nor his background. On my copy there is no brief biography on the author. It is left up to the reader to piece this together which I found frustrating. For example, you start to get hints that he has served in the arm forces and since he likes to talk about his favorite Navy watch cap, one can only assume he was in the Navy. Nope, turns out he was in Army. Part of the problem is that the format of this book is that of journal which explains why it is so repetitive. It's almost as though you found this diary on the street and are left to fill in the blanks on who this person is.
Ultimately I have to say that I found the ending disappointing and sad not because of what ultimately happened to Antonio but rather because the book ended as abruptly as it started. Again this is because you are reading someone's journal. Certainly the message here is that training at the Shaolin Temple should not be idealized because ultimately you are dealing with a system that is so corrupt, unsanitary, backward and so full of conflicts and paradoxes that it will wear down the most well-educated, open minded and well-traveled Westerner. I give kudos to Antonio for taking on this challenge but I can't say that the story telling was all that great for me to recommend it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Telling it like it is
Comment: I'm not a boxer or Kung Fu expert, but I do enjoy travel stories, so I read this book hoping to get a little insight into what the Shaolin temple was really like. Antonio doesn't hold back with what he writes about. It is the brutal honest truth of one man's experience in a place not too many foreigners have visited. Perhaps if more people wrote about Asia in this manner, people wouldn't have a preconceived view of what the place was really like.
An interesting, informative and very funny book. You don't have to be a monk or kung fu fighter to get something out of this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: omi tu fa
Comment: From a personal perspective i found this book informative, humourous, energetic, and at times addictive.
A great story of one mans experiences of living at the shaolin temple, and left me curios to know where he went after arriving in Hong Kong.
Will be looking out for Antonios next book
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brooklyn Shout Out
Comment: Antonio Graceffo deserves nothing but kudos for the risks he took leaving his corporate job and New York to spend more time on an adventurous journey for additional perspective with his journalistic eye, the creative craftmanship of his writing, and his backpack. The verdict on his voyage based on the insights derived from his narratives and his publications should give one brief pause before the resounding yes to purchasing his books.
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