Allister Heath

Practice Makes Perfect

The Craftsman

By

Allen Lane / The Penguin Press 3w25pp £25 order from our bookshop

This is the sort of book I wish had been written a long time ago. For all its limitations, and it has many, Richard Sennett’s latest tome is nevertheless the best exposition yet of why work can be a good thing in and of itself and not just as a means to earning a living. At a time when it has become fashionable to create an almost automatic dichotomy between ‘work’ and ‘life’, Sennett’s paean to craftsmanship helps to show that the reality is more complicated. 

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

    • 'Moore’s work has been so influential that the former ministers who provided him with much of his information now r… ,
    • 'Although he travels through time and space to find the best produce, his choices, delightfully, are not obvious.'… ,
    • RT : I regularly make purchases based on - it’s excellent.,
    • RT : I wrote about Yoko Ogawa's dreamlike, allegorical novel The Memory Police, newly published in English in a translat… ,
    • 'At this frankly apocalyptic moment for indigenous rights in Brazil, John Hemming’s "People of the Rainforest" is a… ,
    • 'I was dumbfounded by the view of the Berlin Wall from the eastern side. It seemed inconceivable that in under thre… ,
    • RT : Danger for ‘local’ staff, access in exchange for silence (and logos) - all sounds familiar in this fascinating look… ,
    Follow Us