Lillian Pizzichini

Mr Jones’s Angst

Status Anxiety

By

Penguin 320pp £10 order from our bookshop

ALAIN DE BOTTON has cornered the market in adapting complex philosophical concepts for the busy reader. He is akin to a life coach in that he coaxes us into developing our intellectual capacity, and offers simple nuggets of wisdom that broaden our perspective on our narrow lives and deepen our shaky understanding of our fellow man; and we don’t even have to put the hours in. For the spiritually vapid and culturally zoned-out, de Botton is a godsend. He is wonderfully generous with his extensive knowledge of the Western literary and philosophical canons. And one cannot help but respond in a similarly generous vein to this most media-savvy of writers. For he is at heart, one senses, a kind man with a genuine desire to spread the Word.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • Why did the 'bold and determined' Empress Matilda never manage to become Queen regnant? Peter Marshall reviews a n… ,
    • From the Archive: Martyn Bedford on Ian McEwan's 'Atonement' ,
    • In 'Silenced Voices' reports the ongoing story of the human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been… ,
    • The mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity has long been agonised over. But what do we know about his victims?… ,
    • A piece of Literary Review history from way back in 1983: John Haffenden talks to the great Iris Murdoch. ,
    • Britain’s only travelling lit fest, the Garden Museum Literary Festival is heading to Houghton Hall, Norfolk, for a… ,
    • 'The 19th-century German sage is not my idea of a pleasant travel companion' goes hiking with Friedr… ,
    Follow Us