Challengingly thought-provoking, Eisenberg’s self-probing processes will encourage anyone to further ponder the meaning of...
A meditation on the relevance of celebrating one’s ever unfolding life story through the preservation and recognition of memories.
With sweeping enthusiasm, former Esquire editor-in-chief Eisenberg (Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What, 2009, etc.) acknowledges the presence of a metaphoric storywriter in the brain (the conscious “narrating mind”) that records and assembles our most significant moments into coherent and meaningful memory chapters. Whether due to technology or diminishing attention spans, many people, he believes, simply don’t bother acknowledging the significance of their life stories or their individual memories; after all, “now that we’re all packing search engines in our pockets, we don’t need to remember as much as we used to.” Eisenberg encourages readers to become more active compilers of their own life stories. Whether cinematic or anticlimactic, each memory is unique to the individual psyche. Regardless of emotional heft, these “stories” are exquisitely personal, forming the beginning, middle, and conclusion of a person’s legacy. The author expands on this theory in affable, accessible language and further engages readers with generous references to his own pivotal human-interest anecdotes. He also explores theories from social scientists, ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, William James, and historical literary figures who each, in one way or another, support his theory that our search for personal purpose and meaning is tantamount to happiness and fulfillment—particularly at midlife. In three intriguing closing questionnaires, the author invites readers further into the heart of his contemplative observations to mindfully record and preserve what is experienced in order to appreciate the present and fortify the future as “generation to generation, the stories we hear, the stories we tell, and the stories we build upstairs commingle and live on indefinitely.”
Challengingly thought-provoking, Eisenberg’s self-probing processes will encourage anyone to further ponder the meaning of life.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4555-5046-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Twelve
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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