A strange life indeed

The author of this novel, P.D. Ouspensky, was a follower of G.I. Gurdjieff, whose teachings are still upheld by several New Religious Movements. Some believe that the Gurdjieff groups are actually cults. Strictly speaking, Ouspensky's book isn't a "real" novel, but a veiled recruitment pitch to join Gurdjieff and become one of his followers. Indeed, one of the characters of the novel, The Magician, symbolizes Gurdjieff himself.

"Strange Life of Ivan Osokin" revolves around the curious fate of a maladapted, bohemian intellectual, named Ivan Osokin. The plot is set in Russia around the year 1900. Osokin is 26 years old, and belatedly realizes that he has screwed up his entire life by making all the wrong choices. A practical joke got him expelled from high school, his love affairs always led him into trouble, he has been arrested and sent to Central Asia as a common soldier, and in Paris he squandered all his money on gambling. Osokin pleads with The Magician to send him back in time, so he can set things right. The Magician does so, and even lets Osokin keep all his memories of the future, as he is mysteriously transported back in time. Despite his best efforts, however, Osokin repeats the same stupid mistakes all over again, despite knowing all their bad consequences!

Ouspensky was fascinated by Nietzsche's idea of the "eternal return", and blended this with Eastern conceptions of the wheel of reincarnation in which humans are trapped. But why are we trapped in this way? An interesting point made by the novel is that our entrapment isn't really fated, but voluntary. When Osokin is transported back in time, he suddenly realizes *why* he made his stupid mistakes. Mostly, it was out of sheer boredom with life. When this boredom comes back to him, he simply re-enacts the same pranks and love affairs all over again. He chooses his miserable future out of free will. Or almost free will, since Osokin is incapable of really changing his underlying psychological make-up, the ultimate source of all the bad choices.

At the end, The Magician informs him of the solution. Osokin must give 20 years of his life to the guru, and voluntarily sacrifice something he holds dear. Only by sacrifices can humans reach enlightenment and break free from the wheel. And no, success isn't guaranteed. Nor is there necessarily a new chance in a future life, since Gurdjieff apparently believed that humans eventually stop reincarnating, and quite simply disappear. What sacrifices the enlightenment really entails is never spelled out. The point of the book is clearly to wet the readers appetite, and make him interested in "The Work" or "The Fourth Way" as Gurdjieff's philosophy was called by his followers. Judging by the practice of Gurdjieff groups, the path to this elusive enlightenment is a weird combination of menial work tasks, meditative dancing, and philosophical lectures based on Gurdjieff's and Ouspensky's books!

That would be a strange life indeed.

Not really recommended.