Phil Cousineau will be known to many readers from his forty-plus books — The Art of Pilgrimage most of all — and as a documentary filmmaker, including The Hero’s Journey about Joseph Campbell, one of Phil’s mentors. If you have spent time here over the last thirty-five years, you’ve likely encountered Phil’s work. He is one of the figures in our Living Spiritual Teachers Project.
This is Cousineau’s first novel, but it relates to his first published book, The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work, a companion to the film mentioned above, because the Sisyphus myth was important to Campbell as well. The founder and then king of the city of Corinth, Sisyphus was known as a trickster in ancient Greece. Homer described him as the most cunning of all men, in the Iliad. But we most remember Sisyphus because Zeus sentenced him to an incredible punishment: rolling a boulder up a hill in Hades for eternity.
The French novelist and existentialist, Albert Camus, had much to say about Sisyphus, and Camus’s essay on the myth informs Cousineau’s mythopoetic novel. This is ultimately a story of triumph over sorrow, of the ways in which the quality of our lives is improved by rising to meet our difficulties, pursuing what is most challenging, and showing determination rather than acquiescence when troubles come our way.
The Lost Notebooks of Sisyphus shows, with creative turns and commentary, how this is a myth with significance for our time and for every time. Cousineau’s language is redolent and powerful, full of human emotion tinged with sacred mysteries. (See the excerpt accompanying this review for an example.)
We took away many lessons from this retelling. For instance, there is a way to participate in the sorrows of our experiences with joy instead of dread and to do likewise as we share in the sorrows of others. Also, just as Sisyphus wrote down his reflections on his journey, we are reminded of the importance of writing and books (such as this one) as a way human beings have long found meaning in difficulties and fresh understanding when times are tough.
