A Christianity-infused work that begins as a moral argument but devolves into exhaustive proselytizing.
Devine, in his nonfiction debut, argues for the Judeo-Christian ideal of forgiveness over the “principle of self-interest.”
The author’s motivation for writing this book-length essay stems from the anger he “feels towards evil, and a desire to expose deception and the satanic agenda”—namely, the frivolous, earthly preoccupations that have eliminated humanity’s need for God. In eight chapters, using a “combination of economic theory and Socratic logic”—and a painstaking reading of the Old and New Testaments—Devine asserts a number of theories and points of debate. He writes that the world was created with an emphasis on symmetry and a universal duality; as a result, he understands good and evil as absolutes. God’s decisions, says Devine, “are black and white; therefore our choices are black and white”; gray areas and confusion are the work of fallible humans. Although the author is personally opposed to abortion, he acknowledges that a woman’s right to choose “remains available, legally or otherwise.” The logical course of action for vehement anti-abortion advocates, he concludes, “is to pray for the woman to know God’s will.” At one point, Devine presents a striking metaphor, asking the reader to imagine that God is a mother bird, human beings are nestlings and Satan is gravity. However, Devine’s arguments become muddled by odd tangents, such as a paragraph on a “global monolithic conspiracy” supposedly responsible for President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Generalizations abound, and many purported facts are either accepted on faith or cited from sources such as “economic studies in mental institutions,” documentaries on the Discovery Channel or the author’s friend’s girlfriend who works in a children’s hospital. Some readers may also find it difficult to accept the author’s assertion that “every biblical prophecy will come to pass.”
A Christianity-infused work that begins as a moral argument but devolves into exhaustive proselytizing.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477535035
Page Count: 100
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.
Want to get ahead in business? Consult a dictionary.
By Wharton School professor Berger’s account, much of the art of persuasion lies in the art of choosing the right word. Want to jump ahead of others waiting in line to use a photocopy machine, even if they’re grizzled New Yorkers? Throw a because into the equation (“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”), and you’re likely to get your way. Want someone to do your copying for you? Then change your verbs to nouns: not “Can you help me?” but “Can you be a helper?” As Berger notes, there’s a subtle psychological shift at play when a person becomes not a mere instrument in helping but instead acquires an identity as a helper. It’s the little things, one supposes, and the author offers some interesting strategies that eager readers will want to try out. Instead of alienating a listener with the omniscient should, as in “You should do this,” try could instead: “Well, you could…” induces all concerned “to recognize that there might be other possibilities.” Berger’s counsel that one should use abstractions contradicts his admonition to use concrete language, and it doesn’t help matters to say that each is appropriate to a particular situation, while grammarians will wince at his suggestion that a nerve-calming exercise to “try talking to yourself in the third person (‘You can do it!’)” in fact invokes the second person. Still, there are plenty of useful insights, particularly for students of advertising and public speaking. It’s intriguing to note that appeals to God are less effective in securing a loan than a simple affirmative such as “I pay all bills…on time”), and it’s helpful to keep in mind that “the right words used at the right time can have immense power.”
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780063204935
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper Business
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
