'Essays in Love' is a stunningly original love story.
Taking in Aristotle, Wittgenstein, history, religion and Groucho Marx, Alain de Botton charts the progress of a love affair from the first kiss to argument and reconciliation, from intimacy and tenderness to the onset of anxiety and heartbreak.
'Essays in Love' is a wholly modern attempt to define the age-old dilemmas of the heart.
For the lovers
This book is touted as a novel, but for the sake of readability it helps to think of the story as some sort of philosophical case study of love. Essentially, that is exactly what it is because every event in the plot serves to illustrate a point as to how we (in modern relationships in Western society at least) experience love. Essays In Love is very much a philosopher's analysis of all the facets of love in a romantic relationship.
The plot follows the course of the narrator's first meeting with his love interest, Chloe, through all the excitement, warm feelings, heated arguments, comfortable silences and, indeed, mundane moments of being in love with her. This means there is something in Essays In Love that all readers can relate to, no matter the state of their love lives, or what stage their relationships are at.
The narrator's constant forays into philosophical discussion so that he might understand all that he is feeling may drive readers of more conventional novels to distraction, but there is still much to enjoy in Essays In Love. It is extremely (and necessarily) honest, and at times, rather amusing. Reading this book is a learning experience and in effect, it could easily double as an entertaining self-help book.
Guest, 08/08/2009
