Reviews
Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center by Michael Downing
testpattern's review against another edition
3.0
A rich, kaleidescopic history of America's first Zen temple. Although the bulk of the work focuses on the 1983 sex and money scandal that threatened to destroy the San Francisco Zen Center, all of the interviews taken together give a fascinating gestalt view of the story of the Center as a whole.
brizreading's review against another edition
I couldn't finish this, and I am ashamed. Especially because I've always said that I'm DYING for (secular) Buddhist history books. And this is even from the coolest subroutine: 1970s+ San Francisco Zen Center, and all the corruption that ensued! Oh man. Wish I could have liked this more, the topic is PERFECT.
jcronk's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty good overall. I didn't mind the nonlinear approach, since it fit in with the oral history aspect, and I think it could really have spoken for itself without comments from the author.
I think the story is effectively told, and if 1983 isn't the most important event in the center's history, it's a pretty important one. Covering the bad decisions that were made before and after, the personal politics, the abuses of power, etc., serve to flesh out the picture, and what I was ultimately left with was a portrait of an organization that grew too much too fast, and the people making the decisions didn't know what they were doing, were oblivious, wilfully blind, and placed more trust than they probably should have in their supposed leader. No one comes across as a villain, at least in my reading, but everyone is flawed, and really, this makes the Zen Center about the same as any other large organization.
I think the story is effectively told, and if 1983 isn't the most important event in the center's history, it's a pretty important one. Covering the bad decisions that were made before and after, the personal politics, the abuses of power, etc., serve to flesh out the picture, and what I was ultimately left with was a portrait of an organization that grew too much too fast, and the people making the decisions didn't know what they were doing, were oblivious, wilfully blind, and placed more trust than they probably should have in their supposed leader. No one comes across as a villain, at least in my reading, but everyone is flawed, and really, this makes the Zen Center about the same as any other large organization.
tamn's review
4.0
Fascinating study of a spiritual organization during and after a scandal/meltdown.
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