The perfect antidote to those who are secretly frightened of Rhonda Byrne.
Cheeky and snotty punk philosophy from across the pond.
Founder and editor of The Idler, British grouch Hodgkinson (How to Be Idle, 2005) is mad as hell—about everything. He hates kvetchers, for example, contending that “Moaning means a shirking of responsibility. And people make money from it, particularly lawyers.” He has no love for the typical 21st-century career arc, claiming, “You start out doing work experience, you graduate to being bossed around by idiots, you become idiotic and, then, if all works out well, you end up being the idiot who bosses other people around.” He also has issues with television and wishes you would chuck yours out the window. Nor does he like rude people, which is somewhat ironic, since throughout his engaging, lucid rant on today’s society, he’s nothing if not rude. But if he were polite, what fun would that be? Hodgkinson’s sophomore effort is indeed a hoot, in a Michael-Moore-on-crack kind of way. Like Moore, he’s a well-meaning, left-leaning smarty-pants who wants to change the world by utilizing a blend of biting humor and cannily positioned facts. His structure is a bit messy—the chapters are all but interchangeable—but his prose is edgy and readable, and the energy never flags, a definite danger in this rambling format. He did a ton of research, appropriating the words and thoughts of everybody from Dante and Bertrand Russell to Greil Marcus and Ken Kesey to support his boiling rage at the medical profession, consumerism, class division, etc., etc., etc. The content is a bit on the time-sensitive side, and the book probably won’t have much punch beyond 2008, but for now, if you need a dose of quality righteous indignation, you need not look further.
The perfect antidote to those who are secretly frightened of Rhonda Byrne.Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-082322-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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