Book Review: How To Be Alone-By Sara Maitland

I had read a short piece by Maria Popova on her Brain Pickings web site and I was intrigued by the content that Maria had posted, so I decided to read the book itself. I had known of the School of Life books from my acquaintance with Alain de Botton’s work and I had very high expectations.

This title more than met my expectations but in different ways. I had expected the tome to be much heavier, more philosophical and questioning. It was all of that and more. Maitland researched her topic thoroughly. She split the topic into three sections: Being Alone in the Twentieth Century, Rebalancing Attitude to Solitude, and The Joys of Solitude. So she proposes a problem, goes into the history of our civilization’s take on solitude and all the social and cultural constraints that we have imposed on those that seek solitude. She talks about the alternative ways to think of solitude and being alone, ways that debunk the cultural taboos that was imposed by a culture that is dominated by extraverts. Finally, she talks about the joys and satisfaction that comes with spending time only with yourself.

This is a remarkable book, one that lays out a history of a social act which is both beloved and mistrusted by the mass culture.

Maitland writes in a leisurely rhythm, the pace of the information flow is fast enough to keep the reader’s attention yet exciting enough to be interesting. Her prose is lovely and loving, giving the readers a gentle introduction to the topic; she is rigorous as well, presenting her facts with convincing details. It was a lesson in the school of life; indeed, this is a very engrossing and also a very educational one, perfect for the introverted autodidact such as myself. 

Book Review: The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis is very good at what he does. In this case, it takes much of his writer acumen and perspicacious observations to make this book better than good.

The topic is: why do people make the decisions that they do? A subject that he is quite acquainted with since his successful telling of the disturbing and head scratching tendencies of major league baseball decision makers to base their decisions on anything but measureable metrics in Moneyball. Actually, it was due to the fact that many people kept telling him to read Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s work that he happened upon the two psychologists/economists.

While the subject matter piqued his interest, the story behind the two friends and their collaboration is what drives this story. It was pure and unadulterated love between two friends. It was the friendship of a lifetime, if we are lucky enough to find someone that we are so in tuned with in our working life.

To complicate things, Danny Kahneman had written a best seller titled Thinking: Fast and Slow. He had undertaken this book because he had received the Nobel prize in economics for the groundbreaking work that he and Tversky had done together over the years, but he got the Nobel and Tversky did not because he had passed away before the Nobel was awarded. Kahneman’s book is a dense but very readable- as readable as a research oriented book on human nature can be- tome on their collaborative partnership.

So Michael Lewis undertook a nearly impossible task, to combine a story of a friendship that is so complete while drilling down into the research in human behavior and doing the yeoman’s work of summarizing that work for the lay audience; AND do so without duplicating or infringing upon the book authored by one of his subjects,

By all accounts, he acquitted himself valiantly. This book is a clear eyed account of an admirable friendship and partnership. He was able to dig deep into their relationship, portray their collaboration honestly and also delve into what eventually led to the dissolution of that relationship. The pioneering work in psychology was also explained concisely but also precisely. No excessive words or digressions were employed in the recitation of the results; the experiments were explained cleanly and efficiently. The story of the research would seemingly be de-emphasized in view of the more audience pleasing aspect of the friendship, but Lewis managed to not have given short shrift to the academic results, a rather large component of the story.

In the end, the story worked in Lewis’ hands. He conveyed the emotions and pathos of the friendship while also regaled us with the significance and importance of the research. A very masterful accomplishment indeed.