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American Pilgrim
What happens when a pickup artist suddenly receives God's grace after teaching a lifestyle of fornication for over a decade to a worldwide audience? American Pilgrim is a memoir that shares the first-year journey of a man upon his decision to repent from a life of evil to serve Jesus Christ. He travels across the United States to deliver his testimony in person through a series of lectures while chronicling the temptations that attempt to bring him back to Satan, the spiritual labors that deepen his faith as a new Christian, and the lamentable state of America on the cusp of great upheaval.
402 pages, Paperback
Published February 19, 2021
6 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Roosh V.
28 books91 followersDaryush Valizadeh, also known as Roosh V, Roosh Valizadeh, and Roosh Vorek, is an American pick-up artist of Iranian and Armenian descent, known for his writings on seduction and antifeminism. He writes on his personal blog and also owns the Return of Kings website where he publishes articles by others on related subjects. Additionally, Roosh has self-published multiple books, most of which offer advice to men on how to talk to, pick up, and ultimately sleep with women in general, as well as in specific countries.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 14, 2025
interview I did with Roosh on themes in the book: https://stephenheiner.medium.com/an-i...
You don’t need to be familiar with Roosh’s backstory to pick up this book. He alludes to a lot of it throughout the text and the appendix with an example of the talk he gave during the road trip that gave birth to this book will fill you in on the broad strokes.
Roosh took a traditional path: go to college, get a good job, save money…until he realized it wasn’t for him. What was for him was pursuing a life abroad with all of the rewards that it might bring.
A decade later he realized he was on an even worse path that the original drudgery he thought he had escaped from, and wanted others to benefit from that journey.
By odd coincidence I was taking a road trip in the United States the same summer (2019) that Roosh was. We had both made our homes in Europe for some years, though I was firmly ensconced in France while Roosh had spent much of his time in Central and Eastern Europe. It was strange that neither of us had taken that “epic American road trip” until we were no longer residents of that said land. I had followed Roosh’s work for some time and made sure that at some point on my two month road trip, our paths would intersect. Roosh has decided to stay in the US permanently, whereas I plan to continue here in Europe indefinitely.
He was humble in person. Still with a good sense of humor, but chastened. I didn’t know then, but found out by reading the book, that the toll of the long journey he had planned had already begun to affect him.
If you’ve followed Roosh’s work, this very much marks a transition. Roosh characterizes himself as a “baby Christian” through the journey and his vulnerabilities and willingness to share his imperfections and challenges were edifying and enlightening. He doesn’t have all the answers. But he has a few of them. And he was willing to take time out to share with those who wanted to listen.
For those interested in a commentary on what is happening in society, particularly in the United States, from the perspective of someone who’s been gone a long enough time to bring some objectivity to his critique, you’ll find good reading here. For those interested in the dead-end of “success” in the “pickup” community, you’ll find sobering reflections. For those who know there is some void in their life but are not even sure where to begin looking, you’ll find some helpful directions.
You don’t need to be familiar with Roosh’s backstory to pick up this book. He alludes to a lot of it throughout the text and the appendix with an example of the talk he gave during the road trip that gave birth to this book will fill you in on the broad strokes.
Roosh took a traditional path: go to college, get a good job, save money…until he realized it wasn’t for him. What was for him was pursuing a life abroad with all of the rewards that it might bring.
A decade later he realized he was on an even worse path that the original drudgery he thought he had escaped from, and wanted others to benefit from that journey.
By odd coincidence I was taking a road trip in the United States the same summer (2019) that Roosh was. We had both made our homes in Europe for some years, though I was firmly ensconced in France while Roosh had spent much of his time in Central and Eastern Europe. It was strange that neither of us had taken that “epic American road trip” until we were no longer residents of that said land. I had followed Roosh’s work for some time and made sure that at some point on my two month road trip, our paths would intersect. Roosh has decided to stay in the US permanently, whereas I plan to continue here in Europe indefinitely.
He was humble in person. Still with a good sense of humor, but chastened. I didn’t know then, but found out by reading the book, that the toll of the long journey he had planned had already begun to affect him.
If you’ve followed Roosh’s work, this very much marks a transition. Roosh characterizes himself as a “baby Christian” through the journey and his vulnerabilities and willingness to share his imperfections and challenges were edifying and enlightening. He doesn’t have all the answers. But he has a few of them. And he was willing to take time out to share with those who wanted to listen.
For those interested in a commentary on what is happening in society, particularly in the United States, from the perspective of someone who’s been gone a long enough time to bring some objectivity to his critique, you’ll find good reading here. For those interested in the dead-end of “success” in the “pickup” community, you’ll find sobering reflections. For those who know there is some void in their life but are not even sure where to begin looking, you’ll find some helpful directions.
May 4, 2022
Roosh’s account of his conversion from womanizer and embittered fornicator to Christianity, after his beloved sister’s death which shook him at his foundations. Delivered in his characteristic workman’s prose─plain and straightforward, that leaves no taste on one’s literary palate. This work bears testimony to the powerful (and positive) changes Christianity can induce in a person, so much so as to make a complete 180 degree turn. By the end of his conversion Roosh might as well have been legally a different person, because his behavior pattern was unrecognizable.
Where before he loved to fill the void in his heart with parties, alcohol, and fornication, now he fills his heart with God and consequently developed a hatred for vices. His newly acquired ascetic tendencies allow him to endure suffering and accept misfortune with equanimity, instead of seeking to avoid that pain or dull it with self-destructive behaviors.
Where before he drew pleasure from ogling women as part of a licentious lifestyle, now his love for God allows him to draw pleasure from beholding God’s work, namely nature. Appreciaton of the synthetic, pornographic, and superficial, is replaced by a fascination for the authentic and the aesthetic─a love for the Beautiful and the True. He now finds magic in watching birds and mountainscapes.
Where before he regarded others in a shallow and facetious manner, now he feels a deep love and kindness towards his fellow man. His success at manipulating women into sleeping with him, the consistency of the input -> output pattern, lent him to see them as inferior, or as objects. Christianity gave him an understanding for the depth of the human soul as well as its infirmities, and consequently he developed patience and understanding in regarding fellow sinners like himself.
Where before he would have easily compromised his principles for his physical wellbeing, now he developed the strong courage of a Christian. As a result of his belief in the afterlife, he would not sacrifice his life or comfort to accommodate evil. He knows that his soul belongs to God and only he can hurt it by the decisions he makes.
I found Roosh’s descriptions of the simple, traditional life to be inspiring and you could feel the pain for missing out on the better life he could’ve given himself in the story of how a little girl made a drawing for him. It’s those moments that are life’s treasures for ordinary people. Roosh gives a window into the better lives some of us could lead and later contrasts that with the urban hellscapes of liberal cities. But never throughout did I find his prose compelling. If there was a word to describe it, it would be ‘deadpan’ or ‘monotone’. I could hardly feel any emotional charge one way or the other. Without emotional charge the book has little in ways of persuasion to cultivate on one hand, a love for Christ and all things beautiful, and on the other hand disgust for liberal values and the products thereof. Consequently, it is weak in this respect.
His appreciation for nature was budding. If you live in the city, it may rub off on you or you may find it refreshing. But if you live in the countryside, his can seem weak in comparison. Fascinating, if nothing else, in the same way one observes a child’s development.
If the book starts with 1 star for the effort of writing it, it gets another 2 because reading it increased my faith and virtue. That, it accomplished.
I subtract one star because of his advocacy for civic nationalism which is anathema to Scripture and natural order. The following quote is a very good example of why you never let racial outsiders dictate your interests, no matter how good they may seem otherwise in whatever regard, because theirs will never align with your own:
“Many parts of suburban Washington, DC also have a large Hispanic population, so I felt almost at home. If you use the faulty language of the left-right dichotomy, I am a “conservative.” I’m supposed to dislike the huge influx of Hispanics coming into the country since I didn’t vote to live in Mexico, but it’s hard to hate them. I’ve never been bothered by a Hispanic; they usually keep to themselves. First-generation immigrants are blue-collar workers, similar to my parents, and family-oriented. Some even possess a strong Catholic faith. Unlike the people in Laguna Beach, they don’t ache for fame and status. I know that wayward Hispanics are capable of gang activity and excessive drinking, but those problems have impacted me far less than the thuggery of [REDACTED] youths, the demented wrath of white female feminists, or the political censorship of [REDACTED] liberals. If I were to construct an enemies list, Hispanics would not be on it, but as a man who is frustrated at the direction America is going, who else can I direct my anger but those who are most visible?“
Roosh is correct. He is not a conservative. He could not conserve America because he is not American. Would his anti-White views get governmentally implemented (they already are), American people would suffer demographic replacement and with it, the irreplaceable ethnic character which built the country he immigrated into. America as he knows and loves it would cease to exist (it is already happening). He could never think of the American heritage as his own–to identify with it–because he is not of it. How can a man feel invested in something he does not own? He is not the Founding Fathers’ posterity.
In fairness to Roosh, he not long ago published an article titled “I Am The Peasant Revolt” where he criticizes this exact phenomenon:
“The plan of the regime was simple: culturally sterilize the white population, their greatest threat to power (as clearly evidenced by the recent Canadian truckers’ protest), and replace them with atomized non-European people who will obey any directive to come and reside in the United States to enjoy its first-world comforts. “
He may have adjusted his politics since writing American Pilgrim but my review must address the contents of the book as they are. Anyway, this is the only iffy passage in the book and it stands out.
It lacks the 5th star firstly because the prose is pauper and doesn't enrich my vocabulary. Nor does it stimulate my intelligence with complex thought patterns. The best books─the 5 star books─excel in every measure, but here American Pilgrim falls short. It gives me less value per sentence as compared to, say, Aristotle’s Rhetoric, where sentences are structurally complex and rich in meaning, and the mere act of deciphering the text into meaning exercises my working memory. Secondly, Roosh could not explore deep theological matters or spiritual insights because he was newly converted. Beginners or those looking to explore Christianity will get more out of it but for intermediate or experienced Christians the most utility they will get is the repetition of the basics. Thirdly, there is the padding characteristic to him from other books consisting of thoughts, observations or repetitions that are superficial or conceptual dead ends. They do not lead anywhere or enhance the principal message. It could have been ~70 pages shorter without taking away anything. What makes the padding more boring is, again, the simplicity of the prose.
If my review seems negative, let me emphasize that for everything else, the book is filled with wisdom, virtue and faith to learn from and it is worth your time to read. Roosh reiterates ancient Patristic wisdom found in writings of old Orthodox Fathers. If you’ve ever tried to read them but found language to be a barrier, his book may be a more accessible venue for the same ideas to reach you.
To sum up:
Positives:
- Very accessible.
- Promotes faith
- Contains wisdom
- Speaks truth
- Orthodoxy
Negatives:
- Padded
- Simple
- Basic
Favorite quotes:
The man who was deepest in the red pill journey asked me whether I believed men should be “the best version of themselves.”
“Who gets to judge when you have arrived at the best version of yourself?” I asked.
“I do.”
“But by what standard are you judging yourself? Who makes the criteria? At some point, you will need the judgments of other people to confirm you really are the best. I want hot women, so I am the best version of myself when hot women want to go to bed with me. I am not the judge of myself—the women are. I want to be rich, so I am the best version of myself when people decide to give me a lot of money for my labor, product, or service. They are my judge. So the best version of yourself will happen to be what pleases other people, but only for the short term, for what the mob likes today will change tomorrow. You will be going from trend to trend to stay
on top of what the culture dictates is best.”
“But don’t you think that you should work towards becoming
better?”
“I think you should work hardest in your relationship with God. Everything else is seeking approval from other people. You allow them to define what success is. They’re also applying that flawed standard to themselves, so in the end you have pigs in a pigpen showing off their mud to each other. For example, say you want to get attractive girls. You know that girls care about looks and charm. You go to the gym, upgrade your wardrobe, and learn some witty one-liners. You coat yourself with the mud to get a mud-soaked woman. You made it! You’re the best version of yourself! But you’re more likely the worst version of yourself, one that is purely material, totally disconnected from God, to please those who are far from God themselves.”
“I didn’t think of it that way.”
“It only took me 40 years to learn that. Today my only judge is God. I aim to only care about what He thinks of me. You see my hairstyle now. It’s unkempt and unattractive. My beard is not properly trimmed. When I look in the mirror, I know for certain that this is not the best I can look, but I proceed because I don’t want to subconsciously seek approval from fallen women.”
Two men left and I gave the third a ride home since he lived near my lodging. He was looking for answers about what to do with his life. Like many, he was skeptical about my re-conversion to Christianity. He didn’t state that he was an atheist, but I was certain that was the case.
“Now I totally respect you and your work,” he started, “and see
you as possessing a sharp mind, but do you think your spiritual turn
is a midlife crisis?”
“I see this more as a midlife miracle than a crisis, an opportunity to withdraw from the world and seek my eternal salvation instead of playing meaningless games that lead to condemnation. In a genuine crisis, people often look for pleasure to soothe the pain. A woman finds yoga and that is her lifestyle. Or she becomes a vegan. A man buys an expensive sports car or pursues women half his age in the Third World. These things will be pleasing for a while until the crisis returns, but when you find God, there is nothing to achieve and nowhere to go. There is no pleasure to receive but divine pleasure. I believe I’ve reached the last stop on my earthly trip
before I die.”
He paused for some time, thinking of his next objection. “But you’re a man of science and logic. How can you just come to believe?”
“Through the heart. It’s hard to come to God through the mind. If what you believe as ‘logic’ leads to evil acts then it can’t be logical at all—it’s the logic of Satan. You’re still looking at the
material world to make you happy. You believe that if you get a new job, or a woman, things will be fine, but they won’t because you have separated those pursuits from God. You will try anyway, and I hope you ‘succeed’ as quickly as possible so that you can see the truth behind what I’m saying at a younger age, but from what I can perceive about your current frame of mind, there’s nothing I can say to convince you there is a God. There’s no argument I can
give you, because your heart doesn’t want to believe. It isn’t ready for God, but I pray one day it will.”
[...]
An atheist cannot be converted by an article. An article can barely help a man with his sex life, and that concerns matters of the world. Coming to God is not a problem of information or knowledge. The question I must ask myself is how to speak to people’s hearts instead of their minds. The best I can do is identify where a man is on his spiritual journey and give him one seed of nourishment that I think he needs. God will then decide whether that seed takes root or not.
-
She even liked Donald Trump. What are the odds that I was able to meet a 22-year-old Polish girl who liked Donald Trump? It was like a needle in a haystack. She liked him and thought me liking him was something cute, but she was a little bit hesitant when I brought home a mammoth photo of Donald Trump and put it on my wall. I thought she would be more excited. She said, “Do you really want Donald Trump watching us make love?”
“Yes! I do!”
-
The last thing I learned in life is that this world is a gift from God, and when you are done here, you go back to Him. One other thing I learned from this experience is that there is nothing to be afraid of in this world. Imagine this man in the front row right now comes up to me with a gun and says, “Roosh, I’m going to shoot you!” I would tell him, “You cannot hurt me. You can hurt my body, but you cannot hurt my soul. Only I can hurt my soul with the decisions that I make.”
Since humbling myself before God and starting to pray, everything has changed. My whole mental orientation has changed. My moral compass has changed. It turns out that in the inverted world we live in, I was living a life that was inverted too. By turning to God, He lifted me up and inverted back to where I should be.
Where before he loved to fill the void in his heart with parties, alcohol, and fornication, now he fills his heart with God and consequently developed a hatred for vices. His newly acquired ascetic tendencies allow him to endure suffering and accept misfortune with equanimity, instead of seeking to avoid that pain or dull it with self-destructive behaviors.
Where before he drew pleasure from ogling women as part of a licentious lifestyle, now his love for God allows him to draw pleasure from beholding God’s work, namely nature. Appreciaton of the synthetic, pornographic, and superficial, is replaced by a fascination for the authentic and the aesthetic─a love for the Beautiful and the True. He now finds magic in watching birds and mountainscapes.
Where before he regarded others in a shallow and facetious manner, now he feels a deep love and kindness towards his fellow man. His success at manipulating women into sleeping with him, the consistency of the input -> output pattern, lent him to see them as inferior, or as objects. Christianity gave him an understanding for the depth of the human soul as well as its infirmities, and consequently he developed patience and understanding in regarding fellow sinners like himself.
Where before he would have easily compromised his principles for his physical wellbeing, now he developed the strong courage of a Christian. As a result of his belief in the afterlife, he would not sacrifice his life or comfort to accommodate evil. He knows that his soul belongs to God and only he can hurt it by the decisions he makes.
I found Roosh’s descriptions of the simple, traditional life to be inspiring and you could feel the pain for missing out on the better life he could’ve given himself in the story of how a little girl made a drawing for him. It’s those moments that are life’s treasures for ordinary people. Roosh gives a window into the better lives some of us could lead and later contrasts that with the urban hellscapes of liberal cities. But never throughout did I find his prose compelling. If there was a word to describe it, it would be ‘deadpan’ or ‘monotone’. I could hardly feel any emotional charge one way or the other. Without emotional charge the book has little in ways of persuasion to cultivate on one hand, a love for Christ and all things beautiful, and on the other hand disgust for liberal values and the products thereof. Consequently, it is weak in this respect.
His appreciation for nature was budding. If you live in the city, it may rub off on you or you may find it refreshing. But if you live in the countryside, his can seem weak in comparison. Fascinating, if nothing else, in the same way one observes a child’s development.
If the book starts with 1 star for the effort of writing it, it gets another 2 because reading it increased my faith and virtue. That, it accomplished.
I subtract one star because of his advocacy for civic nationalism which is anathema to Scripture and natural order. The following quote is a very good example of why you never let racial outsiders dictate your interests, no matter how good they may seem otherwise in whatever regard, because theirs will never align with your own:
“Many parts of suburban Washington, DC also have a large Hispanic population, so I felt almost at home. If you use the faulty language of the left-right dichotomy, I am a “conservative.” I’m supposed to dislike the huge influx of Hispanics coming into the country since I didn’t vote to live in Mexico, but it’s hard to hate them. I’ve never been bothered by a Hispanic; they usually keep to themselves. First-generation immigrants are blue-collar workers, similar to my parents, and family-oriented. Some even possess a strong Catholic faith. Unlike the people in Laguna Beach, they don’t ache for fame and status. I know that wayward Hispanics are capable of gang activity and excessive drinking, but those problems have impacted me far less than the thuggery of [REDACTED] youths, the demented wrath of white female feminists, or the political censorship of [REDACTED] liberals. If I were to construct an enemies list, Hispanics would not be on it, but as a man who is frustrated at the direction America is going, who else can I direct my anger but those who are most visible?“
Roosh is correct. He is not a conservative. He could not conserve America because he is not American. Would his anti-White views get governmentally implemented (they already are), American people would suffer demographic replacement and with it, the irreplaceable ethnic character which built the country he immigrated into. America as he knows and loves it would cease to exist (it is already happening). He could never think of the American heritage as his own–to identify with it–because he is not of it. How can a man feel invested in something he does not own? He is not the Founding Fathers’ posterity.
In fairness to Roosh, he not long ago published an article titled “I Am The Peasant Revolt” where he criticizes this exact phenomenon:
“The plan of the regime was simple: culturally sterilize the white population, their greatest threat to power (as clearly evidenced by the recent Canadian truckers’ protest), and replace them with atomized non-European people who will obey any directive to come and reside in the United States to enjoy its first-world comforts. “
He may have adjusted his politics since writing American Pilgrim but my review must address the contents of the book as they are. Anyway, this is the only iffy passage in the book and it stands out.
It lacks the 5th star firstly because the prose is pauper and doesn't enrich my vocabulary. Nor does it stimulate my intelligence with complex thought patterns. The best books─the 5 star books─excel in every measure, but here American Pilgrim falls short. It gives me less value per sentence as compared to, say, Aristotle’s Rhetoric, where sentences are structurally complex and rich in meaning, and the mere act of deciphering the text into meaning exercises my working memory. Secondly, Roosh could not explore deep theological matters or spiritual insights because he was newly converted. Beginners or those looking to explore Christianity will get more out of it but for intermediate or experienced Christians the most utility they will get is the repetition of the basics. Thirdly, there is the padding characteristic to him from other books consisting of thoughts, observations or repetitions that are superficial or conceptual dead ends. They do not lead anywhere or enhance the principal message. It could have been ~70 pages shorter without taking away anything. What makes the padding more boring is, again, the simplicity of the prose.
If my review seems negative, let me emphasize that for everything else, the book is filled with wisdom, virtue and faith to learn from and it is worth your time to read. Roosh reiterates ancient Patristic wisdom found in writings of old Orthodox Fathers. If you’ve ever tried to read them but found language to be a barrier, his book may be a more accessible venue for the same ideas to reach you.
To sum up:
Positives:
- Very accessible.
- Promotes faith
- Contains wisdom
- Speaks truth
- Orthodoxy
Negatives:
- Padded
- Simple
- Basic
Favorite quotes:
The man who was deepest in the red pill journey asked me whether I believed men should be “the best version of themselves.”
“Who gets to judge when you have arrived at the best version of yourself?” I asked.
“I do.”
“But by what standard are you judging yourself? Who makes the criteria? At some point, you will need the judgments of other people to confirm you really are the best. I want hot women, so I am the best version of myself when hot women want to go to bed with me. I am not the judge of myself—the women are. I want to be rich, so I am the best version of myself when people decide to give me a lot of money for my labor, product, or service. They are my judge. So the best version of yourself will happen to be what pleases other people, but only for the short term, for what the mob likes today will change tomorrow. You will be going from trend to trend to stay
on top of what the culture dictates is best.”
“But don’t you think that you should work towards becoming
better?”
“I think you should work hardest in your relationship with God. Everything else is seeking approval from other people. You allow them to define what success is. They’re also applying that flawed standard to themselves, so in the end you have pigs in a pigpen showing off their mud to each other. For example, say you want to get attractive girls. You know that girls care about looks and charm. You go to the gym, upgrade your wardrobe, and learn some witty one-liners. You coat yourself with the mud to get a mud-soaked woman. You made it! You’re the best version of yourself! But you’re more likely the worst version of yourself, one that is purely material, totally disconnected from God, to please those who are far from God themselves.”
“I didn’t think of it that way.”
“It only took me 40 years to learn that. Today my only judge is God. I aim to only care about what He thinks of me. You see my hairstyle now. It’s unkempt and unattractive. My beard is not properly trimmed. When I look in the mirror, I know for certain that this is not the best I can look, but I proceed because I don’t want to subconsciously seek approval from fallen women.”
Two men left and I gave the third a ride home since he lived near my lodging. He was looking for answers about what to do with his life. Like many, he was skeptical about my re-conversion to Christianity. He didn’t state that he was an atheist, but I was certain that was the case.
“Now I totally respect you and your work,” he started, “and see
you as possessing a sharp mind, but do you think your spiritual turn
is a midlife crisis?”
“I see this more as a midlife miracle than a crisis, an opportunity to withdraw from the world and seek my eternal salvation instead of playing meaningless games that lead to condemnation. In a genuine crisis, people often look for pleasure to soothe the pain. A woman finds yoga and that is her lifestyle. Or she becomes a vegan. A man buys an expensive sports car or pursues women half his age in the Third World. These things will be pleasing for a while until the crisis returns, but when you find God, there is nothing to achieve and nowhere to go. There is no pleasure to receive but divine pleasure. I believe I’ve reached the last stop on my earthly trip
before I die.”
He paused for some time, thinking of his next objection. “But you’re a man of science and logic. How can you just come to believe?”
“Through the heart. It’s hard to come to God through the mind. If what you believe as ‘logic’ leads to evil acts then it can’t be logical at all—it’s the logic of Satan. You’re still looking at the
material world to make you happy. You believe that if you get a new job, or a woman, things will be fine, but they won’t because you have separated those pursuits from God. You will try anyway, and I hope you ‘succeed’ as quickly as possible so that you can see the truth behind what I’m saying at a younger age, but from what I can perceive about your current frame of mind, there’s nothing I can say to convince you there is a God. There’s no argument I can
give you, because your heart doesn’t want to believe. It isn’t ready for God, but I pray one day it will.”
[...]
An atheist cannot be converted by an article. An article can barely help a man with his sex life, and that concerns matters of the world. Coming to God is not a problem of information or knowledge. The question I must ask myself is how to speak to people’s hearts instead of their minds. The best I can do is identify where a man is on his spiritual journey and give him one seed of nourishment that I think he needs. God will then decide whether that seed takes root or not.
-
She even liked Donald Trump. What are the odds that I was able to meet a 22-year-old Polish girl who liked Donald Trump? It was like a needle in a haystack. She liked him and thought me liking him was something cute, but she was a little bit hesitant when I brought home a mammoth photo of Donald Trump and put it on my wall. I thought she would be more excited. She said, “Do you really want Donald Trump watching us make love?”
“Yes! I do!”
-
The last thing I learned in life is that this world is a gift from God, and when you are done here, you go back to Him. One other thing I learned from this experience is that there is nothing to be afraid of in this world. Imagine this man in the front row right now comes up to me with a gun and says, “Roosh, I’m going to shoot you!” I would tell him, “You cannot hurt me. You can hurt my body, but you cannot hurt my soul. Only I can hurt my soul with the decisions that I make.”
Since humbling myself before God and starting to pray, everything has changed. My whole mental orientation has changed. My moral compass has changed. It turns out that in the inverted world we live in, I was living a life that was inverted too. By turning to God, He lifted me up and inverted back to where I should be.
May 11, 2021
I haven't written a proper book review in years, but I felt compelled to do so for this gem of a book.
One of the few white pill moments in recent times was the turning of Roosh to Christ and his very recent conversion into the ROCOR. I had only heard about Roosh V when in 2016 there was a scare among anti-porn women on the internet about his meetings with men, instructing them into the evils of fornication.
For someone who had fallen so deeply into sin and the promotion of that same sin to many others, to find his way to the grace of Christ the Redeemer is a very powerful testimony to God's mercy. This book is Roosh's way of letting us all know what changed him to walk such a righteous path after many years under demonic influence.
A true story of redemption that I feel would leave few untouched in its raw honesty. It offers a contrast between the more ideal places of monasteries, nature and homesteads versus the cities plagued with homelessness, partying hordes and the shameless celebration of s*domy and transgenderism, and how focus on God is possible in every environment. We need not run from the world but merely keep our hearts set on Christ in spite of the hardships, fear and sinful distractions that our earthly life is challenged with.
I am very hopeful that this book will change the lives of many and will open more hearts and minds to the eternal message of Christ and the redemption that the Gospel offers. God willing more will find their way to Christ, and hopefully to the Orthodox church as well.
(For those of you who haven't watched the Babylon road videodiaries of this trip yet, I highly recommend doing so after having read the book. )
One of the few white pill moments in recent times was the turning of Roosh to Christ and his very recent conversion into the ROCOR. I had only heard about Roosh V when in 2016 there was a scare among anti-porn women on the internet about his meetings with men, instructing them into the evils of fornication.
For someone who had fallen so deeply into sin and the promotion of that same sin to many others, to find his way to the grace of Christ the Redeemer is a very powerful testimony to God's mercy. This book is Roosh's way of letting us all know what changed him to walk such a righteous path after many years under demonic influence.
A true story of redemption that I feel would leave few untouched in its raw honesty. It offers a contrast between the more ideal places of monasteries, nature and homesteads versus the cities plagued with homelessness, partying hordes and the shameless celebration of s*domy and transgenderism, and how focus on God is possible in every environment. We need not run from the world but merely keep our hearts set on Christ in spite of the hardships, fear and sinful distractions that our earthly life is challenged with.
I am very hopeful that this book will change the lives of many and will open more hearts and minds to the eternal message of Christ and the redemption that the Gospel offers. God willing more will find their way to Christ, and hopefully to the Orthodox church as well.
(For those of you who haven't watched the Babylon road videodiaries of this trip yet, I highly recommend doing so after having read the book. )
October 25, 2021
Yellow school bus to Heaven
There are multiple great things about this book. Roosh vividly pictures modern American society in the sate of terminal moral decay, which makes his own path to God a true miracle. But the best thing about the book is that it really makes you not only think, but act. I'm changing my life as I read it, hoping to hop on that school bus.
There are multiple great things about this book. Roosh vividly pictures modern American society in the sate of terminal moral decay, which makes his own path to God a true miracle. But the best thing about the book is that it really makes you not only think, but act. I'm changing my life as I read it, hoping to hop on that school bus.
January 17, 2022
It’s good to see Roosh is now on the right path. His insightful musings on the great American road trip are well intertwined with his personal growth in faith. It can get a bit repetitive at times, but this is a symptom of the blandness of American cities. Read this book, and when you’re done, keep checking out Roosh’s work on Rooshv.com, he has grown considerably after the publication of this book, and I look forward to his online articles and next book.
April 18, 2022
I've known Roosh's work for a long time, since one of my best friends was into 'game' and really liked his books on the subject. I like his political commentary, but didn't care too much about 'game', but I learned a lot about male - female relations in the modern world, psychology etc., so it was helpful to me as well and I enjoy his style of writing.
After his conversion to Orthodox Christianity, he made his forum into a Christian discussion board, with no fornication advice and discussions allowed, so I joined. I was banned from the forum quite fast, simply for explaining the broader picture of spirituality, that Yoga for example is not 'demonic', clarified some of the opinions and philosophies of different religions, but that's a big no-no there.
My opinion of Roosh is that he's a good, honest man, really trying his best to be a good Christian, but he's sort of a Christian Taliban, so to say, his interpretation of Christianity and Jesus Christ is too literalistic, dogmatic and fairly intolerant. From his writing it seems that he thinks that God is a person, it's a common thing to anthropomorphize God, which is low, exoteric understanding of every religion. But as long as a man acts morally, works hard to crucify the "old man", it doesn't matter if he has deep understanding of mystical aspects of a religion or philosophy, as long as he doesn't hate others or talk about things he doesn't understand, like Roosh does in regards to other religions and philosophies, despite just grasping the surface of Christianity. I am sure that he will dig deeper, he's a dedicated man.
Buddha avoided talking too much about what enlightenment is and deeper cosmology for that reason, which is incredibly wise. He shows the path, and if you're meant to understand this things, they will be uncovered for you, you won't need anyone's word for it. We have unbridgeable gaps now, in Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, where different sects dislike each other, because of dogmatic, cosmological and other differences, while all striving (supposedly) for the same goal. I'm deeply saddened that these division are present and I'm doing my best to try and console different sects and religions, but it's an uphill battle.
With all being said, Roosh has shown that he's completely genuine to anyone who doubted his conversion, by unpublishing every single of his books about 'game' and fornication, which cut off most of his income and I respect that immensely. He's also working hard to change, did a lot of good with his articles, streams and events. So despite his dogmatic, exoteric and in many cases wrong (Yoga, Buddhism) understanding of Christianity, other religions and spirituality in general, he did more to turn people to Christianity and moral life than most people that have deeper understanding of these topics. This is how different perspectives, levels of understanding and living shape the world in God's perfect system. I bought the physical book mostly because I wanted to reward his hard work, that brought many attacks against him by people consumed with ignorance and evil stemming from it. That's the least he deserves.
After a lengthy intro, I can finally write about the book. Roosh's style of writing is great and the book doesn't have a SINGLE spelling or grammar mistake. I like his dry humor, politically we align 100%, he openly talks about everything wrong with the world and culture we live in. His descriptions of his road trip - towns and cities he visited, the atmosphere, nature, people, his inner battles, problems and revelations are great. I really enjoyed the book and read it in a couple of days, which is quite fast for me, with the little spare time I have. It's truly a great book.
I'd recommend the book to everyone who's aware, or starting to wake up to the truth that we live in a declining world and that finding solace in God and serious spiritual practice is the only solution for anyone who wants to find peace. Avoid the book if following truths are 'offensive' to you: Homosexuals and transsexuals are mentally ill people, there is major Jewish involvement in almost every scourge of humanity (homosexual propaganda, stirring racial tensions, almost all pornography, banking/stock market), feminism is a financed subversion movement to destroy societies. I'll stop there.
After his conversion to Orthodox Christianity, he made his forum into a Christian discussion board, with no fornication advice and discussions allowed, so I joined. I was banned from the forum quite fast, simply for explaining the broader picture of spirituality, that Yoga for example is not 'demonic', clarified some of the opinions and philosophies of different religions, but that's a big no-no there.
My opinion of Roosh is that he's a good, honest man, really trying his best to be a good Christian, but he's sort of a Christian Taliban, so to say, his interpretation of Christianity and Jesus Christ is too literalistic, dogmatic and fairly intolerant. From his writing it seems that he thinks that God is a person, it's a common thing to anthropomorphize God, which is low, exoteric understanding of every religion. But as long as a man acts morally, works hard to crucify the "old man", it doesn't matter if he has deep understanding of mystical aspects of a religion or philosophy, as long as he doesn't hate others or talk about things he doesn't understand, like Roosh does in regards to other religions and philosophies, despite just grasping the surface of Christianity. I am sure that he will dig deeper, he's a dedicated man.
Buddha avoided talking too much about what enlightenment is and deeper cosmology for that reason, which is incredibly wise. He shows the path, and if you're meant to understand this things, they will be uncovered for you, you won't need anyone's word for it. We have unbridgeable gaps now, in Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, where different sects dislike each other, because of dogmatic, cosmological and other differences, while all striving (supposedly) for the same goal. I'm deeply saddened that these division are present and I'm doing my best to try and console different sects and religions, but it's an uphill battle.
With all being said, Roosh has shown that he's completely genuine to anyone who doubted his conversion, by unpublishing every single of his books about 'game' and fornication, which cut off most of his income and I respect that immensely. He's also working hard to change, did a lot of good with his articles, streams and events. So despite his dogmatic, exoteric and in many cases wrong (Yoga, Buddhism) understanding of Christianity, other religions and spirituality in general, he did more to turn people to Christianity and moral life than most people that have deeper understanding of these topics. This is how different perspectives, levels of understanding and living shape the world in God's perfect system. I bought the physical book mostly because I wanted to reward his hard work, that brought many attacks against him by people consumed with ignorance and evil stemming from it. That's the least he deserves.
After a lengthy intro, I can finally write about the book. Roosh's style of writing is great and the book doesn't have a SINGLE spelling or grammar mistake. I like his dry humor, politically we align 100%, he openly talks about everything wrong with the world and culture we live in. His descriptions of his road trip - towns and cities he visited, the atmosphere, nature, people, his inner battles, problems and revelations are great. I really enjoyed the book and read it in a couple of days, which is quite fast for me, with the little spare time I have. It's truly a great book.
I'd recommend the book to everyone who's aware, or starting to wake up to the truth that we live in a declining world and that finding solace in God and serious spiritual practice is the only solution for anyone who wants to find peace. Avoid the book if following truths are 'offensive' to you: Homosexuals and transsexuals are mentally ill people, there is major Jewish involvement in almost every scourge of humanity (homosexual propaganda, stirring racial tensions, almost all pornography, banking/stock market), feminism is a financed subversion movement to destroy societies. I'll stop there.
October 5, 2024
Even in his pick-up artist phase, Roosh Valizadeh’s writing displayed a level of introspection and observation which made his books worth reading.
In ‘American Pilgrim,’ Roosh is on the road—giving us his take on worldly issues for possibly the last time. His aim isn’t to pick up women or teach others how to, but to share his experience of finding God. Travelling across the USA to preach about Jesus is hardly breaking new ground—but this travelogue is engaging because of Roosh’s critical analysis of himself, the USA, and the absurdity of the human condition.
In his 40s, Roosh has ended up somewhere between Saint Augustine and the Unabomber. Like Augustine, he reviles his own sexual-adventure-seeking past and yearns for the spiritual. Like the Unabomber, he hates the degeneracy of modern society and sees possible salvation in becoming a practical man in touch with nature. This draw is strong because Roosh is an intellectual wanting to be more self-sufficient and not trapped in his head. However, the louder voice turns out to be Augustine’s as Roosh realises buying a cabin in the woods and going off the grid is just another worldly illusion taking him away from God. It’s hard to find a harmless hobby in other words—maybe birdwatching is the answer.
“Exhilaration! I’m a bird-watcher now! Maybe it was simply a matter of asking God to change the channel from women to landscapes, from Twitter to birds, from urban living, entertainment, pleasure, impulsiveness, and dependence to farming, nature, beauty, patience, and independence.”
Roosh gives talks and hosts dinners and happy hours with people prepared to pay to hear his message. As an introvert, he struggles to keep his energy up for his performances. At one stage, he has a panic attack sitting in his car and can’t even move. I could relate to this and have always liked Roosh’s descriptions of how an introvert experiences the world.
He visits national parks, churches, and public libraries. He finds the great national parks of the USA have become commodified and Disney-fied, full of happy selfie snappers. An example of this is when he comes across a crowd of tourists videoing and photographing an oblivious bison:
“I would share a video of the bison and include links to my tour web page. I monetized the bison! And he wouldn’t even get a cut of my ticket sales.”
Experiencing nature takes effort—you need to hike well away from the road—but Roosh—his energy prematurely drained in early middle-age, needs to focus on getting his long tour done.
His feeling of being an outsider comes to the fore when visiting Princeton Public Library. According to Roosh, an American town can be judged by the state of the public library. If the library is quiet and clean, the town will be full of hard-working, God-fearing Americans flying the Stars and Stripes. If the library is full of homeless people doing their ablutions, the town will be full of rough-sleeping public defecators and tattooed degenerates drinking in bars decorated with gay pride flags. The library in Princeton is so well-to-do that Roosh, who these days looks like a wandering Rasputin, finds himself raising the suspicions of the security guard as a scruffy individual of Middle Eastern and Eastern European descent. He realises the irony of feeling discriminated against as a minority because he is vehemently against minority politics, which he feels have been sequestered by the radical left for demonic purposes.
Some of the details about Armenian Orthodox liturgies might not interest the general reader but Roosh does a decent job in rating liturgies and church services for how close they make him feel to God. At the bottom of the list is the rock n’ roll concert-like performance at Joel Osteen’s money-grubbing mega church, and at the top are the liturgies held in Old Slavonic without any technological aids.
On the negative side, while I found Roosh’s disapproving take on woke urban areas amusing and not without merit, I thought he let his hatred of certain groups get the best of him at times. He can see straight through the propaganda of the radical left, but he readily accepts outlandish alt-right conspiracies when they are fed to him. In the struggle between good and evil and he doesn’t want shades of grey. While his tirades against homosexuals and women are grating, he nails this description of Hollywood:
“Hollywood is where broken people go to trade their souls for a heightened material existence. They degrade and foul themselves under the influence of lust, power, and greed before a select group of gatekeepers who control the best roles and parts to produce sordid content that modifies the beliefs and behavior of those who watch it.”
Another sticking point for Roosh in modern America is people with silly tattoos. In a hilarious interaction with a hipster waitress, Roosh asks about her tattoo
““It’s a symbol that comes from ancient Egypt,” she replied. “It was usually hidden in those times, but I want to bring it to the surface so it’s more visible.” In other words, she hoped to promote a symbol of evil so that dark powers could assert more control over this world.”
Is he being serious? I hope not. On another occasion, a tattoo prevents him from considering a possible mate:
“Her tattoo was an absolute deal breaker. I couldn’t overcome it. It will take a miracle for me to ever get married.”
I don’t like tattoos either but I found it sad he couldn’t get past the fact this woman had a tattoo—because she was willing to lead a Christian life. People change, as Roosh has. He still has a deep mistrust of women. The description he gives of his handling of the breakup with his Polish girlfriend in the appendix is not flattering. But good writing is not about making the author look good, it’s about dragging up deep, uncomfortable emotions and putting them on the page. On his experience in Poland and overseas in general, Roosh is now saying this.
“Don’t do it, it’s a trap,” I said. “I wasted a decade abroad, and now I wish that I had stayed in the States all along. You can create a million reasons to go, thinking you’re making the right choice, but it’s a deception.”
While not ready to live in a monastery, Roosh has become very pious. From his description of the pain he went through when his younger sister died, we can be sure this spiritual transformation is genuine. Since early 2023, he’s stopped posting his writing online. I think withdrawal from the world to work on himself spiritually is a wise choice for Roosh. I’m one year older than he is and have followed his career for many years. Sifting through his articles, I always found something of interest beyond whatever message he was pushing at the time. It’s worth noting he has improved his writing a lot since ‘A Dead Bad in Paraguay,’ which came out some fifteen years ago.
In ‘American Pilgrim,’ Roosh is on the road—giving us his take on worldly issues for possibly the last time. His aim isn’t to pick up women or teach others how to, but to share his experience of finding God. Travelling across the USA to preach about Jesus is hardly breaking new ground—but this travelogue is engaging because of Roosh’s critical analysis of himself, the USA, and the absurdity of the human condition.
In his 40s, Roosh has ended up somewhere between Saint Augustine and the Unabomber. Like Augustine, he reviles his own sexual-adventure-seeking past and yearns for the spiritual. Like the Unabomber, he hates the degeneracy of modern society and sees possible salvation in becoming a practical man in touch with nature. This draw is strong because Roosh is an intellectual wanting to be more self-sufficient and not trapped in his head. However, the louder voice turns out to be Augustine’s as Roosh realises buying a cabin in the woods and going off the grid is just another worldly illusion taking him away from God. It’s hard to find a harmless hobby in other words—maybe birdwatching is the answer.
“Exhilaration! I’m a bird-watcher now! Maybe it was simply a matter of asking God to change the channel from women to landscapes, from Twitter to birds, from urban living, entertainment, pleasure, impulsiveness, and dependence to farming, nature, beauty, patience, and independence.”
Roosh gives talks and hosts dinners and happy hours with people prepared to pay to hear his message. As an introvert, he struggles to keep his energy up for his performances. At one stage, he has a panic attack sitting in his car and can’t even move. I could relate to this and have always liked Roosh’s descriptions of how an introvert experiences the world.
He visits national parks, churches, and public libraries. He finds the great national parks of the USA have become commodified and Disney-fied, full of happy selfie snappers. An example of this is when he comes across a crowd of tourists videoing and photographing an oblivious bison:
“I would share a video of the bison and include links to my tour web page. I monetized the bison! And he wouldn’t even get a cut of my ticket sales.”
Experiencing nature takes effort—you need to hike well away from the road—but Roosh—his energy prematurely drained in early middle-age, needs to focus on getting his long tour done.
His feeling of being an outsider comes to the fore when visiting Princeton Public Library. According to Roosh, an American town can be judged by the state of the public library. If the library is quiet and clean, the town will be full of hard-working, God-fearing Americans flying the Stars and Stripes. If the library is full of homeless people doing their ablutions, the town will be full of rough-sleeping public defecators and tattooed degenerates drinking in bars decorated with gay pride flags. The library in Princeton is so well-to-do that Roosh, who these days looks like a wandering Rasputin, finds himself raising the suspicions of the security guard as a scruffy individual of Middle Eastern and Eastern European descent. He realises the irony of feeling discriminated against as a minority because he is vehemently against minority politics, which he feels have been sequestered by the radical left for demonic purposes.
Some of the details about Armenian Orthodox liturgies might not interest the general reader but Roosh does a decent job in rating liturgies and church services for how close they make him feel to God. At the bottom of the list is the rock n’ roll concert-like performance at Joel Osteen’s money-grubbing mega church, and at the top are the liturgies held in Old Slavonic without any technological aids.
On the negative side, while I found Roosh’s disapproving take on woke urban areas amusing and not without merit, I thought he let his hatred of certain groups get the best of him at times. He can see straight through the propaganda of the radical left, but he readily accepts outlandish alt-right conspiracies when they are fed to him. In the struggle between good and evil and he doesn’t want shades of grey. While his tirades against homosexuals and women are grating, he nails this description of Hollywood:
“Hollywood is where broken people go to trade their souls for a heightened material existence. They degrade and foul themselves under the influence of lust, power, and greed before a select group of gatekeepers who control the best roles and parts to produce sordid content that modifies the beliefs and behavior of those who watch it.”
Another sticking point for Roosh in modern America is people with silly tattoos. In a hilarious interaction with a hipster waitress, Roosh asks about her tattoo
““It’s a symbol that comes from ancient Egypt,” she replied. “It was usually hidden in those times, but I want to bring it to the surface so it’s more visible.” In other words, she hoped to promote a symbol of evil so that dark powers could assert more control over this world.”
Is he being serious? I hope not. On another occasion, a tattoo prevents him from considering a possible mate:
“Her tattoo was an absolute deal breaker. I couldn’t overcome it. It will take a miracle for me to ever get married.”
I don’t like tattoos either but I found it sad he couldn’t get past the fact this woman had a tattoo—because she was willing to lead a Christian life. People change, as Roosh has. He still has a deep mistrust of women. The description he gives of his handling of the breakup with his Polish girlfriend in the appendix is not flattering. But good writing is not about making the author look good, it’s about dragging up deep, uncomfortable emotions and putting them on the page. On his experience in Poland and overseas in general, Roosh is now saying this.
“Don’t do it, it’s a trap,” I said. “I wasted a decade abroad, and now I wish that I had stayed in the States all along. You can create a million reasons to go, thinking you’re making the right choice, but it’s a deception.”
While not ready to live in a monastery, Roosh has become very pious. From his description of the pain he went through when his younger sister died, we can be sure this spiritual transformation is genuine. Since early 2023, he’s stopped posting his writing online. I think withdrawal from the world to work on himself spiritually is a wise choice for Roosh. I’m one year older than he is and have followed his career for many years. Sifting through his articles, I always found something of interest beyond whatever message he was pushing at the time. It’s worth noting he has improved his writing a lot since ‘A Dead Bad in Paraguay,’ which came out some fifteen years ago.
February 6, 2022
A recently read story included a character who was learning and trying out “game”: a way to interact with women in order to attract them sexually. The protagonist (“game” boy’s best friend) continually fails to see how this strategy works as it seems to involve ignoring or even insulting the “target”. Game boy’s explanations are often funny yet reveal intriguing insights into human nature. I wanted to know more.
In an appendix the author cited “Game” by RooshV and said he was planning to give copies to his boys when they grew old enough, adding that Amazon had banned several of Roosh’s books but you could get them from Roosh’s website: rooshv.com
I have boys. I clicked. He’d unpublished “Game” but I bought “Free Speech Isn’t Free”. Couldn’t put it down. Bought “Lady” then “American Pilgrim” which I read alongside watching the “Babylon Road” vids on his website.
I won’t repeat Roosh’s story which others here have already referred to. Roosh’s conversion seems to me to be the real deal. The money quote for me was this exchange he had with a guest who attended one of his events:
He paused for some time, thinking of his next objection. “But you’re a man of science and logic. How can you just come to believe?” “Through the heart.”
Roosh’s faith seems based on his experience.
Roosh observes and writes. His road trip observations rarely delve into history or stats or other objective background info. He observes people and places and sees common trends. He tends to see the same things and it’s obvious he’s looking for them, tho i took this as his strategy for feeling the “pulse” of a place: the public library, the presence (and number) of gay pride flags, of the homeless, the attire and meeting places of young people.
In an appendix the author cited “Game” by RooshV and said he was planning to give copies to his boys when they grew old enough, adding that Amazon had banned several of Roosh’s books but you could get them from Roosh’s website: rooshv.com
I have boys. I clicked. He’d unpublished “Game” but I bought “Free Speech Isn’t Free”. Couldn’t put it down. Bought “Lady” then “American Pilgrim” which I read alongside watching the “Babylon Road” vids on his website.
I won’t repeat Roosh’s story which others here have already referred to. Roosh’s conversion seems to me to be the real deal. The money quote for me was this exchange he had with a guest who attended one of his events:
He paused for some time, thinking of his next objection. “But you’re a man of science and logic. How can you just come to believe?” “Through the heart.”
Roosh’s faith seems based on his experience.
Roosh observes and writes. His road trip observations rarely delve into history or stats or other objective background info. He observes people and places and sees common trends. He tends to see the same things and it’s obvious he’s looking for them, tho i took this as his strategy for feeling the “pulse” of a place: the public library, the presence (and number) of gay pride flags, of the homeless, the attire and meeting places of young people.
April 9, 2021
Former pick-up artist Roosh V turns away from the material world and goes on a trip across America to tell his story of finding Christ on a speaking tour. It's the first book I have read from Roosh and it was better than I expected, he is a surprisingly talented writer.
I wouldn't recommend this book to people who are turned off by "God talk" but I would highly recommend it to people who are also finding themselves frustrated with the nihilistic, secular existence and are looking for something more.
Roosh does go off into some conspiracy theory territory a couple of times, and while these are minor parts of the book, I do worry that people might take that stuff too seriously as it can turn into an unhealthy obsession.
I wouldn't recommend this book to people who are turned off by "God talk" but I would highly recommend it to people who are also finding themselves frustrated with the nihilistic, secular existence and are looking for something more.
Roosh does go off into some conspiracy theory territory a couple of times, and while these are minor parts of the book, I do worry that people might take that stuff too seriously as it can turn into an unhealthy obsession.
April 20, 2022
A great book that I felt was very appropriate and relevant to myself and all young men in America. I will likely be buying multiple copies to give to friends and family.
September 5, 2022
Great book, a book about a sinful secular living man on a journey to reclaim his life and spirit. It has great ideas/lessons that are considered radical and taboo now.
February 28, 2024
good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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