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Title: On Love by Alain de Botton, Alain Botton, Alain de Botton ISBN: 0-8021-3409-2 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: January, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36 (42 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: You'll read it again and again and again....
Comment: This is like an intelligent "Bridget Jones Diary" written from the male perspective. I bought this book on a whim (judged by it's cover)in February of 1996 and since then I've probably re-read it five or six times and loaned it out to dozens of girlfriends. With humor and intellect the book describes all the facets of love and the joy and pain being in love brings. If you have ever been in a passionate yet failed romance this book will bring some strong flashbacks. Even though that might not be highly desirable unless you're hopelessly nostalgic like me, it makes you realize that insightful and sensitive men go through much of what women go through during the evolution of a relationship. And that I found immensely comforting. I have all of Alain de Botton's works and I savor each and every one of them. To me he is pure genius.
Rating: 5
Summary: The best was the first
Comment: Alain de Botton really got famous around the time of How Proust can change your life and he's cemented his reptuation with his new book The Consolations of Philosophy. Both of them are great, but recently, I found this book, his first one, and I was completely, I mean, completely blown away. If you've read and in any way enjoyed de botton's past books, I think you'll love this one. It's got all the strengths of his writing; the analysis, the humour, the clarity, the elegance. But it's also got passion, it feels like you're reading the private thought of a man in love (in a good way). It taught me so much about myself, it reminded me of things I'd felt, but perhaps never been able to express. It made me feel a sense of community; like when you put down a book and think, 'Hey, I'm not all alone, there's someone out there who thinks like me.' It REALLY annoys me that the way publishing works, the best books sometimes never get promoted. Why were there ads all over the New York Times for de Botton's Consolations of Philosophy, but nothing for this one. This book was published in 1993 and sank without trace. It's published by Grove Atlantic, when actually, it's the kind of book that deserves to outsell Nick Hornby. I hear in Britain de Botton is really really well known; and I guess that's the way it should be. Anyways, On Love is a terrific read. To my mind, BETTER than his last two books; much better and fresher and more heartfelt. Go for it.
Rating: 4
Summary: Clever and fun
Comment: How can a love story go together with philosophy? Or how can a youngman, who thoroughly studied philosophy, fall deeply in love, without thinking too much and asking himself too many questions?
The beginning of the story happens in the sky, in a British Airways flight. And after that, as it happens in every love story, both protagonists come down to earth. And this is the moment when everything starts.
The story of this novel is simplicity itself: a love affair, from its very beginning to its very end. De Botton's narrator describes falling in love with Chloe, being in love with her, and then getting over her, actually a quite banal thing. But what makes the book interesting and captivating is the way he manages to show everyday love in characters who are not particularly appealing, considering all aspects of love, especially the everyday and trivial.
According to Alain de Botton, there are two ways to understand love: a mystical one, or at least mythical, and a philosophical one. This book takes both ways seriously and banters them gracefully. On one hand we have signs, destiny, romantic fatalism, Cupid and on the other we have Plato and Kant. I am sure that many of you will recognize themselves in the stories the author tells and will admit that he or she said or did the same things when was in love.
I also have to say that Alain de Botton is prone to think too much sometimes and makes big deal out of small things, philosophizes a lot.
And so I found the story difficult to follow at times, which prevented me from fully enjoying the narrative.
Despite this, this little book is very clever, written with a lot of common sense, nerve and surprises (the story is full of drawings, charts and diagrams) and it can be read by the ones who are cheated or dissapointed by a love story. It is well written and fun to be read.
It is something that will remind you that some things should not be always taken too seriously.
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Title: How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel by Alain De Botton ISBN: 0679779159 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Consolations of Philosophy by ALAIN DE BOTTON ISBN: 0679779175 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Romantic Movement : Sex, Shopping, and the Novel by Alain De Botton ISBN: 0312144032 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 15 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Kiss & Tell by Alain De Botton ISBN: 0312155611 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 15 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton ISBN: 0375420827 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 30 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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