Reviews
Didn’t change my life.
"To make [reading] into a discipline is to give too large a role to what is only an incitement. Reading is on the threshold of the spiritual life; it can introduce us to it: it does not constitute it."
as always Alain de Botton strikes, and wins.
A book well balanced between literary criticism and philosophical discussion. I think Alain de Botton is razor sharp intelligent and insightful, and I really enjoy his video lectures and talks, but his writing is if not at times a bit hard to follow (his command of language amazes me but is at the same time quite challenging). This book didn't stir my soul as I had hoped it would but it did make me laugh at some points, think hard and deeply at others, and mostly was a quick, engrossing read and in-depth portrait of a writer with whom I was not well acquainted with. 3.5ish
Great read — felt short and to the point by the way it's organized into subject chapters. I love de Botton's writing style: personal, concise, and insightful. Quote: "We cannot be taught wisdom, we have to discover it for ourselves by a journey which no one can undertake for us, an effort which no one can spare us." Quote: "We should read other people’s books in order to learn what we feel; it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer’s thoughts that help us do so."
This is a rather unusual book. I would describe it as a literary thesis run amok. Alain de Botton has not only read Proust, he is on the first name terms with his subject: always happy to provide a right quote or tease out an obscure biographical fact to illustrate his point. But here comes the surprising thing, rather than use this knowledge to prove some dull academic point, he turns his curiosity to questions that would generate indignation and outrage at the faculty: how to suffer successfully? how to love life? show your emotions? be a good friend? and be happily in love?! The secret of this book is that Proust has little to do with those questions himself. Honestly, his writing is just a prop in de Botton's hands, as he elaborates his views on these topics. In lesser hands, this would have risked producing a very dogmatic treatise, but luckily for us, the author holds some non-orthodox views and can express them with wit and elegance. Take this passage, where de Botton introduces the concept of a bad sufferer: these are "wretched souls who have been betrayed in love, or excluded from parties, who are pained by a feeling of intellectual inadequacy or a sense of social inferiority but who learn nothing from such ills, and indeed react to them by engaging a variety of ruinous defence mechanisms, which entail arrogance and delusion, cruelty and callousness, spite and rage." This quote is classical de Botton - elegantly written, confidently delivered, and inviting inner reflection. We can all agree that arrogant, cruel, delusional people subvert their human potential. But ought we always learn from the vagaries of everyday life? What if we are being discriminated against by a powerful figure who happens to be a latent racist? Or just happen to work with someone who is a total dick? Accepting these circumstances and using them to shape our character is a laudable undertaking. But calling such people out for their inappropriate behavior - in my eyes - is an equally valid approach. Even if I tend to disagree with de Botton's views now and then, I love the fact that his reading of Proust frames our suffering (love, friendship, hobbies, etc.) in an entirely new way. Having read my fair share of gloomy philosophical works, I appreciate how cheerful and optimistic de Botton sounds. Where Michel Foucault looks at great works of art, science, sociology and concludes that these are the decoys used by powerful elites to entrench themselves at the top of the social pyramid, de Botton points out how great artists and writers open our eyes to social reality and sensitize us to the beauty and suffering around. And where Slavoj Žižek proclaims, "humanity is OK, but 99% of people are boring idiots," de Botton parries that disastrous encounters with aristocrats should not discourage us from searching for interesting people, but rather inspire us to become better at doing so. I find this message soothing and worth supporting. All in all, a nice read!
