An intelligent, if at times self-aggrandizing, celebration of lying and love.
An admitted liar muses about deception.
Philosopher, essayist and novelist Martin (Philosophy/Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City; How to Sell, 2009, etc.) expounds on love, sex and lying in this digressive, interesting, but sometimes exasperatingly narcissistic book. At 46, married three times, divorced twice, a recovering alcoholic and, the author confesses, a lifelong liar, he wrote this book “to figure out how I’ve loved and how to do it better. More brutally put—and more honestly?—I am trying to behold my body and my heart without disgust.” That question mark is unsettling: What, readers may well wonder, is true? Martin recounts his first love, of his sister, a disturbed girl several years older than he; his first erotic experience when he was a child and brushed against his mother’s buttocks; his first sexual experience, in high school, in all its kinky details; and his halfhearted suicide attempt. He insists that lies pervade all relationships and that liars are more intelligent than nonliars, supporting his assertions with “studies” as likely to be found in newspaper reports as in academic journals. He maintains, for example, that “the capacity to lie convincingly is a reliable predictor of social and financial success among adults.” “By the time we are two or three,” he says, “we are telling people what they want to hear—or what we think they want to hear. The best liars must also be mind readers.” Among the wide range of writers and thinkers Martin draws upon are Socrates and Plato, James Joyce and Raymond Carver, Nietzsche, Kant, Stendhal, Freud, of course, and the Freudian psychiatrist Adam Phillips, Montaigne, Machiavelli and even the charming liar Pinocchio.
An intelligent, if at times self-aggrandizing, celebration of lying and love.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0374281069
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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