Alum Peter Coyote's Complex Life Unveiled in 'The Rainman's Third Cure'

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS -- The road to enlightenment has been a long and winding one for Peter Coyote. In his new memoir, “The Rainman’s Third Cure: An Irregular Education” (Counterpoint Press, $26, 288 pages), the Marin-based actor, activist and Zen practitioner takes the reader on a vivid Pilgrim’s Progress — one, he says, that was often driven by the twin forces of love and power. Taking its title from a Bob Dylan lyric, the book is the second memoir for the 73-year-old Coyote (his first, “Sleeping Where I Fall,” was published in 1998). Coyote gained independence at Iowa’s Grinnell College, where he was drawn to the allure of theatre, and at San Francisco State, where he studied Creative Writing. After settling in the Bay Area, he started his career as an actor, working with the San Francisco Mime Troupe — “it had the most beautiful women,” he says — and the Magic Theatre, where he appeared in the world premiere of Sam Shepard’s “True West” in 1980.