Riding the crest of his prior success--a disappointment
"The Bones of the Master" is a highly-accomplished book and well deserving of the highest accolades. Mr. Crane's subsequent volume "Beyond the House of the False Lama" rides the crest of this prior success, but proves to be a minor disappointment. I only wish his editor had had the sense to remind Crane that poetry was his calling. The subsequent book is a thinly connected hodge-podge, that might have made for several interesting magazine articles. Surely, this manuscript was not fit editorially for publication as a full book on its own merits. I concur with other reviewers who note the endless self-indulgence and juvenile tone. Let's not pretend that this book has anything to do with Zen, Buddhism or self-discovery.