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Product Description
Alain de Botton, Observer
Intellectually rigorous, fun and charming with some of the
playfulness of early Stoppard or even Diderot
playfulness of early Stoppard or even Diderot
William Boyd
A book of tremendous originality: funny, clever and hugely
beguiling
beguiling
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
My wife bought this for me on a whim for my birthday, and I am so pleased! As far as I know, "Sophie's World", by Jostein Gaarder, was the first book that explicitly directed philosophical questions at people from smart teenagers upwards. This is the second. A variety of philosophical questions (Is death the worst thing that can happen to you? What is happiness? Do we have free will?) are introduced to a teenager, with characters around him arguing from different perspectives. As tends to be the way, no conclusions are really reached - but by the end of the book, Ben has (and hopefully the reader will have) a more thoughtful perspective on the nature of life, the universe and everything.
The principal characters (Ben and Lila - to what extent, I wonder, is the author writing herself into the part of Lila?) are sympathetic and well-painted. The plot is imaginative and playful. The writing is snappy and clever - "Ben had heard of Plato. And now he'd seen his sports car, he was even more impressed." And if we are really homo sapiens, then we ought to be thinking about the issues that the author discusses.
Please write some more, Ms Eyre!
The principal characters (Ben and Lila - to what extent, I wonder, is the author writing herself into the part of Lila?) are sympathetic and well-painted. The plot is imaginative and playful. The writing is snappy and clever - "Ben had heard of Plato. And now he'd seen his sports car, he was even more impressed." And if we are really homo sapiens, then we ought to be thinking about the issues that the author discusses.
Please write some more, Ms Eyre!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you liked the idea behind Jostein Gaarder's seminal Sophie's World but find yourself slightly daunted by its thickness and sometimes didactic approach, this is for you.
If Minds Had Toes rests on a silly yet brilliant premise: there is an afterlife specifically devoted to housing dead philosophers; Socrates is the president of this land; he and the mysanthropic Wittgenstein enter a bet to decide once and for all whether philosophical vocation is a gift or a curse.
In order to prove their respective theses, an ordinary live boy is selected, and taken on a series of guided tours of the World of Ideas, where he is confronted by the great questions in a series of amusing yet provocative dialogues.
A good idea well-executed, this is Sophie's World for beginners - shorter, snappier, funny, even cute.
Full marks would have been awarded if there'd been more real dead philosophers: those that are there are there to provide ambience and comic relief; though they do this exceedingly well, it would have been more ambitious and gripping to have the thinkers behind the theories arguing for them. Still; it's but a small quibble: the book's well worth the time and grey cells.
If Minds Had Toes rests on a silly yet brilliant premise: there is an afterlife specifically devoted to housing dead philosophers; Socrates is the president of this land; he and the mysanthropic Wittgenstein enter a bet to decide once and for all whether philosophical vocation is a gift or a curse.
In order to prove their respective theses, an ordinary live boy is selected, and taken on a series of guided tours of the World of Ideas, where he is confronted by the great questions in a series of amusing yet provocative dialogues.
A good idea well-executed, this is Sophie's World for beginners - shorter, snappier, funny, even cute.
Full marks would have been awarded if there'd been more real dead philosophers: those that are there are there to provide ambience and comic relief; though they do this exceedingly well, it would have been more ambitious and gripping to have the thinkers behind the theories arguing for them. Still; it's but a small quibble: the book's well worth the time and grey cells.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have never posted a review before, but I loved this book and felt compelled to write. I read a review in the Times and ordered this from Amazon - I could hardly put it down. It was thought provoking, accessible and truly engaging. Finally, something that isn't depressing, aristo-turns-sleuth, man-bricked-up-in-cellar, medieval-mystery, bring-down-the-catholic-church, chick-lit or aga-saga. An original and stimulating novel. Why don't they write them like this any more? You can probably tell, I loved it - refreshing and as thought provoking as you want it to be, this is an educational and enjoyable read. It deserves to be a great success.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
To help you to choose your A-levels.
The newspaper reviews of this book let the general reader know what it does and that it is done well. Read more
Published on 12 April 2009 by N. J. Phillips
A meaty novel about philosophy, marred by vulgarity
This book inevitably invites comparison with Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World: both were written initially with teenage readers in mind; each novel is a about a young adolescent -... Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2008 by Ralph Blumenau
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