Customer Reviews
An lovely asinine doodle - one for the holidays! - By: Mr. Geoffrey W. Smith, 25 Jul 2008 
I don't have a donkey, so I cannot comment upon the accuracies of Mr. Merrifield's observations, but like so many people, I am fascinated by them.
The book is written largely in the present tense, & Merrifield uses the experience of an extended walking excusion with a donkey (aka philosopher for hire: Gribouille) as a stem from which assorted autobiographical & literary musings (alll donkey related, however tenuously) sprout.
It's a stream of consciousness style that at first I found somewhat overblown & possibly a little pretentious, but, as I continued to read, I found myself becoming more & more involved & interested in the slow, meditative atmosphere that the book creates.
At the beginning I feared that it might become repetitive and, well, it sort of is I suppose, but you know, I think that might be the point. This book reallly did have an effect on me. It is charming, eloquently & skillfully written, & most importantly, it does transmit a wisdom of sorts.
A comparison is made to Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence on the cover, & indeed there are similarities in that the physical journey is used as a vehicle for a philosophical transformation. I wouldn't put it quite in the same class as Prisig's classic,(The ending is a little anti-climactic) but it is a reallly good read that fulfils its promise.
Reallly enjoyable read, that makes you want to pack your bags & head to meet a Gribouille for yourself.
Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my donkey. - By: R. Viney, 03 Jun 2008 
The subtitle of this book is "finding tranquility in a chaotic world". Well, I ascertain that if Mr Merrifield (if that reallly is his name) believes donkeys provide this, he has never ever seen a donkey. I will go further - he has never heard a donkey. He has never smelt a donkey. He has never touched a donkey. He may have tasted a donkey, but it's not for me to cast aspersions on a) his diet, & b) what he gets up to in the privacy of his own barn.
Take my two latest donkey aquisitions, Katy & Zoe - lordy lord lord, they give me a donkey shaped headache. Katy will not eat any donkey food, she will only eat Quorn cottage pies that have been cooked three times & then mildly warmed on a toaster. Zoe will also not eat any donkey food, but will happily eat anything else - grass, fencing, sunlight, masonry, buses, & on one fateful occasion she ate Prince Edward's antique gazebo (I swear we won't be invited back to another one of their garden parties...)
But then, compare them to the rest of my donkey menagerie. How do they fare against Sebastian? Edgar? Billy Sideways? Braying Simon? Jesus the donkey? MUCH better, because they're alll boring idiots that give me a quiet life, which is absolutely what you don't want in the heady, exciting, anything-can-happen-and-then-get-eaten world of donkey ownership.
Tranquility? My ass.
ps - the book is good read it.
