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"A wonderfully clear and cogent thesis." -"Guardian"
"Should be mandatory reading for everyone." -Will Self
"Should be mandatory reading for everyone." -Will Self
The Guardian, Nick Lezard
"as Oliver James's very important book demonstrates...he has thought about the problem a lot and he approaches it in a very winning fashion...he is consistently engaging in both his apercus and his occasionally eccentric asides"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
74 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Promising idea, let down in the execution,
This review is from: Affluenza (Hardcover)
"Affluenza" is certainly a catchy title for the book and the definition of the problem certainly piques interest. James' work begins with a promising premise - seeking to explain (broadly through anecdotal ethnographic study - though by no means rigorous research) the rise in the reported incidence of mental illness and psychological distress in the developed world. Unfortunately, though, it appears that James reached his conclusions before he conducted the research - i.e. the modern world is "bad" and makes people unhappy and a lot of his judgements and pronouncmenets are clouded by this. The book also strays habitually into the territories of the unsubstantiated generalisation, fallacious argument and the error of confusing causation with correlation. In this way, James tends to seize upon explanations and theories without exploring alternatives and controlling for other potential explanatory factors. Apart from this, the author is also inappropriately self-satisfied regarding the affluence of his own upbringing, repeated discussion of which seems jarringly out of place in a book of this type, and also inappropriately takes it as read that childhood experiences inevitably govern the run of everyone's adult life. Apart from these criticisms, the book is well worth reading for the introspection it invites into one's values and life choices. Read Affluenza, but so do with a healthy degree of scepticism and with one eyebrow raised. This was probably not James' intention as he clearly regards himself as an arch intellectual, but this book really cannot be treated as a seminal sociological work!
32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Money doesn't buy you happiness...,
By
This review is from: Affluenza (Hardcover)
If this sentiment seems trite to you, you may find little of real substance here, though as a schoolteacher who often wishes he were rich and famous (I answered YES to almost every question on the first page), I certainly need vivid reminders such as this book that the rich and famous aren't significantly happier than the rest of us - or if they are, it may have very little to do with their wealth and fame. From that point of view, it's a soothing balm for the would-be materialist's aching soul. Success, money, fame, houses, yachts, soft-furnishings, shoes - none of these things will make you happy - they can't.
Having said that, James' editor should have sat down with him and forced him to re-write it. There are jarring inconsistencies of tone (James refers to himself as his readers' 'heroic mind tourist', and says 'Err, see what you mean mate' in an aside), inaccuracies of punctuation ('as my mother said shortly before she died when my wife was describing her birth plan' - how very unfortunate that she should have died at that moment!), and, as has already been noted, broad unsupported statements that support his arguments when their opposites could equally easily be posited. I love the portrait of the deeply unhappy multi-millionaire contrasted with the taxi-driver in the first chapter, but it's just too easy. I bet there are loads of unhappy taxi-drivers, and there may even be one or two well-balanced, fulfilled billionaires too, mightn't there?
57 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting theory, poorly delivered,
By
This review is from: Affluenza (Paperback)
I agree that this book is not very well written at all, so much so that it failed to keep me engaged. I gave up half way through. Although I agreed with the authors original premise, I do believe that Alain De Botton wrote a much better book with Status Anxiety and explained the premise in a much clearer and concise manner.
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