The Dragon and the Tiger, Volume 2: The Untold Story of Jun Fan Gung-Fu and James Yimm Lee

I am writing this review under the second volume (Volume 2: Bruce Lee, The Oakland Years: The Untold Story of Jun Fan Gung-fu and James Yimm Lee), but my assumption is that most readers will want both this volume and the one that precedes it. I initially started with volume 2 because I believed that I had read enough material throughout the years about Bruce Lee’s life that there would be nothing new for me to learn about him; I wanted to learn about James Yimm Lee, who I knew was influential in Bruce Lee’s life. The advice, however, given at the beginning of volume 2, suggests that the reader start with volume 1. I grudgingly accepted the advice and was glad that I did because I discovered things that I had been previously unaware of. I have absolutely no regrets about starting with volume 1. Absolutely none. Needless to say, volume 2 (also) lived up to my expectations. There has been criticism about the lack of editing/ proofreading (i.e. spelling errors, grammatical errors,etc) in both volumes and, more importantly, the “fictional tone” (i.e. frequent narratives of unspoken thoughts and feelings of people) present throughout both volumes. I must concur with the criticism of the presence of spelling and grammatical errors. Yes, those do occur enough to justify criticism which is one reason for a 4 out of 5 rating. And, yes, I must confess that I wonder how much artistic license the author (Sid Campbell) used in creating his flowing narrative. Truthfully, I question how much of the new information I gained is, indeed, factual. But the general idea of Bruce Lee’s and James Lee’s search for practical functionality in fighting does fit with the narrative in both volumes as it does with my own preconceptions of these men. If Sid Campbell has taken artistic license in crafting the narrative of these volumes, then I accept his version and description of the events that took place during that time period. I see that the author (Sid Campbell) was himself a serious student of the martial arts in Oakland during this time period. During his lifetime (1944-2008) Sid Campbell was a successful writer as well as a martial artist and, therefore, in my opinion, in a position to accurately hypothesize just what Bruce and James Lee might’ve been thinking and feeling in their heart of hearts.