A mixed bag of 23 essays, most previously unpublished in English, by the passionate German-born Zionist and master scholar of Jewish mysticism. As in many such gatherings, there is too much intellectual ``filling'' that might well have been left out; had this volume been reduced by a third, it would have seemed more substantive. In addition, a great many more explanatory notes are needed; how many readers, after all, will understand references to ``anti- Canaanite'' thought or to ``Alfasi''? Some of Scholem's (18971982) essays are meant only for specialists. An analysis of Franz Rosenweig's The Star of Redemption proves to be as dense as that acclaimed but little-read work of 20th-century Jewish theology. Some half-dozen essays, however, are highly accessible and scintillating, particularly ``Reflections on Modern Jewish Studies,'' a devastating critique of the highly rationalist and apologetic 19th-century ``science of Judaism.'' Scholem maintains that ``operative within the Jewish Haskalah'' (Enlightenment) were ``tendencies towards historical suicide'' and the ``destruction and dismantling'' of many facets of the tradition unacceptable to the Haskalah's leading thinkers. Also noteworthy are the beautifully crafted essays ``Three Types of Jewish Piety'' and ``My Way to Kabbalah,'' an autobiographical sketch. The introduction by Shapira (the chief editor of Scholem's writings), while too short, provides a fascinating intellectual sketch of Scholem, revealing, for example, that his magisterial biography of the 17th-century false messiah Shabtai Zevi was written ``in its entirety, almost at once, in one draft, without early studies or partial preparations.'' The best parts of this collection reveal that Scholem, who spoke of himself as a God-believer but also a ``religious anarchist,'' delved into previously neglected aspects of Judaism's long history with unparalleled intellectual empathy and thoroughness.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8276-0579-X
Page Count: 260
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1997
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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