cover image Ladies of the Rope: Gurdjieff's Special Left Bank Women's Group

Ladies of the Rope: Gurdjieff's Special Left Bank Women's Group

William P. Patterson, Wm Patrick Patterson. Arete Communications, $19.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-1-879514-41-6

In 1935, a group of remarkable women began meeting in Paris with the extraordinary spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff. The group, which ultimately numbered seven, called itself ""the Rope,"" because Gurdjieff told its members to help one another like mountain climbers making a difficult ascent. All except one were lesbian, most were American and nearly all were famous. Patterson (Eating the ""I"") is fascinated by Gurdjieff's mysterious decision to teach these women directly, since by that time Gurdjieff had virtually abandoned teaching to focus on writing. Shedding light on the Rope by meticulously pulling together material archived in libraries around the United States, he draws on the papers of the brilliant Jane Heap, co-founder with Margaret Anderson of the groundbreaking literary magazine, the Little Review; of the dramatically emotive Anderson; of Kathryn Hume, author of The Nun's Story; and of the beautiful, sensitive journalist Solita Solano. Patterson relies on Solano's notes to reconstruct the dialogues that took place during the lunches and dinners the women shared with Gurdjieff until 1939. He is reticent regarding his opinions about why Gurdjieff chose to lavish such care and attention on the Rope, but he finds resonance in Gurdjieff's comment to three of the women, ""You very dirty... but have something very good--many people not got--very special."" The narrative conveys the profundity, originality and surprising tenderness of Gurdjieff as he strove to open up the souls of these uncommonly intelligent and spirited women. (Jan.)