Adrian Turpin
Disease of the Learned
The Missing Shade of Blue: A Philosophical Adventure
By Jennie Erdal
Abacus 320pp £12.99
‘Do as I say, not as I do’ applies to philosophy as much as any other discipline. The search for the Good Life (what the Ancient Greeks termed eudaimonia) does not presuppose a good life, or a particularly ordered one. David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment thinker whose presence haunts Jennie Erdal’s first novel, spent a lifetime trying to find an accommodation between philosophy and ‘the common life’. But it didn’t stop him, like Descartes, suffering a nervous breakdown as a young man. Hume’s response to the ‘disease of the learned’, as depression was sometimes known in the eighteenth century, was to play backgammon and take long daily hikes that stilled his whirring mind. The consolations of philosophy went only so far.
Three centuries later that remains true and, in The Missing Shade of Blue, Erdal delights in exposing the limits of reasoning. For Harry Sanderson, a drink-sodden relic of Edinburgh University’s philosophy faculty, the day job offers little illumination. His marriage to Carrie, an artist and former pupil, is fading. His
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Richard Flanagan's Question 7 is this year's winner of the @BGPrize.
In her review from our June issue, @rosalyster delves into Tasmania, nuclear physics, romance and Chekhov.
Rosa Lyster - Kiss of Death
Rosa Lyster: Kiss of Death - Question 7 by Richard Flanagan
literaryreview.co.uk
‘At times, Orbital feels almost like a long poem.’
@sam3reynolds on Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, the winner of this year’s @TheBookerPrizes
Sam Reynolds - Islands in the Sky
Sam Reynolds: Islands in the Sky - Orbital by Samantha Harvey
literaryreview.co.uk
Nick Harkaway, John le Carré's son, has gone back to the 1960s with a new novel featuring his father's anti-hero, George Smiley.
But is this the missing link in le Carré’s oeuvre, asks @ddguttenplan, or is there something awry?
D D Guttenplan - Smiley Redux
D D Guttenplan: Smiley Redux - Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway
literaryreview.co.uk