Surrender yourself to Vandenberg's raging rapids-of-consciousness dictation of his drive towards warrior dominance. Book ended by sutras, his life is an action flick festival: a masochistic runt's passionate ascent through martial arts ranks in Flanders; a gut-checking Kunto camp in Okinawa; a star search exposing the ugly disappointment behind the curtain in Hollywood; French Foreign Legion action in Africa's unsalvageable hell-holes and the unrelenting Amazon of French Guiana, and more. Fighting, fornicating, and feeding, his river of testosterone beaches him in a contest of Russian roulette with three Kamikaze expats in a hellish Thai rape den.
Bushido-brained play-by-plays will sate martial artists, whose library without Iron Circle is as incomplete on the mentality of a warrior as it'd be on fighting strategy without the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. The esprit-building cycle of intense Legion training followed by drinking binges and missions like rescuing foreign nationals from Rwanda's implosion will leave soldiers nostalgic. But, Vandenberg really teaches us all the values of discipline, pride, and sacrifice required to attain rare achievement in any discipline, during any age.
A quick read, the machine gun pace feels like cold steel when readers want to share Vandenberg's accomplishments, losses, and follow his warrior's path, not just flip through the snap shots of his unique life. Those snap shots, if accurate, capture a fascinating personal journey through such a Bizarro parallel universe they make Iron Circle a contemporary must-read.
As a martial artist, I was very curious about this book. I recently sent a copy to a friend who trains in Asia, and he really ate it up. The book is amazing in its honesty. The author is not some kind of macho wannabe. He is a guy who does things, and then asks himself why he did it. It is a very interesting book of self-analysis, and a look into the dark side of the male psyche. I did not find the writing to be off-putting. I think that they make a point in the book of stating that this book was told to Mr. Rever by Vandenberg, so the writing is spontaneous and reflects that fact, like an oral history or an interview. I actually liked that aspect of the writing. Yes, some expressions do sound a bit odd, but Vandenberg is Belgian and thus English is not his native language, and I appreciated for example, him letting us know how people in the world of martial arts in Asia and the French Foreign Legion talk. The author is amazing in the fact that he had so many dangerous and exciting experiences. Most men only have one tenth of what he experienced in their lives. It reminds me of the expression: "all men die. Most men never live". I found the chapters on the French Foreign Legion particularly interesting. This book takes you from one country to the next fast, and at the same time, is a deeply introspective look into the warrior's soul.
