My Book Reviews

Review of the book Reality: A Very Short Introduction by Jan Westerhoff , O.U.P., 2011. I remember an old colleague once remarking that the Christian Brothers, who ran the schools we taught in, did not live in the real world.  That comment got me thinking.  Even 30 years ago I was interested in philosophy and questioned this very biased remark in my own mind. Everyone's life is equally real whether they are married, single, young, old or whatever.  It simply is not good enough - it's sheer bad logic for a start - to say X's life is more real than Y's.  Then when you come to think of it, what is reality anyway?  This is a big philosophical question, and indeed one worth asking and exploring.  This is a central question in that branch of philosophy called metaphysics. The author Jan Christoph Westerhoff is erudite, to say the least, and can boast of two Ph.D.s.  His home page is here and he teaches at the University of Durham. ...

A picture of my own copy of this book I have just finished reading the collected prose writings of William Styron , or in full  William Clark Styron, Jr. (1925 – 2006) who was a widely recognised American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work.  He was best known for his novels, including: Lie Down in Darkness (1951), his acclaimed first novel, published at the young age of 26; The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), narrated by Nat Turner , the leader of an 1831 Virginia slave revolt  and the famous novel  Sophie's Choice  (1979), a story "told through the eyes of a young aspiring writer from the South, about a Polish Catholic survivor of Auschwitz and her brilliant but troubled Jewish lover in postwar Brooklyn"  and which became even more famous because the film that was made of this last work.  The novel The Confessions of Nat Turner  caused a furore when published, as many readers questioned how a Cauc...

The books reviewed hereunder on my kitchen table! 1. The God Delusion , Bantam Press, 2006 by Professor Richard Dawkins. 2. Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life , Blackwell Publishing, 2005, by Professor Alister McGrath. Both of these books are worth reading in tandem as essentially one is the rebuttal of the other.  McGrath's book is a rebuttal of the writings and teachings of  Richard Dawkins up until 2005, that is, all his books that appeared before The God Delusion , but nonetheless, they both can be profitably read as a commentary on one another.  This strategy is a good way of learning about the connotations, denotations, ramifications and implications of philosophical positions on any question.  Such a way of reading is decidedly philosophical and indeed Socratic in approach.  As our debate teacher, Mr Michael McLoughlin always reminded us young students at school: "Always bear in mind the arguments of the opposition." The G...

The books in question are on my bookshelves. This afternoon I spent a few hours attempting to sort out books in my library - always a dangerous thing to do as I end up reading, and indeed re-reading, rather than sorting, putting away or recycling.  Any book lover certainly knows this compulsion well.  Anyway, I chanced to spend more time perusing poetry books and anthologies, and now I will share with you a short review of five anthologies - with all of which Niall MacMonagle has had some connection.  MacMonagle is a teacher, broadcaster and critic here in Ireland.  Four of these anthologies form the series called Lifelines - Lifelines, I, II, III and Lifelines New and Collected - all published by Townhouse, Dublin,  1992, 1994, 1997 and 2004 respectively.  The fifth and final anthology is  Off The Wall , Marino, 2002. The word "anthology" has an unusual etymology, to say the least, viz., it derives from the Greek word ἀνθολογία ( ant...

Why is there Something rather than Nothing?: Questions from Great Philosophers , Penguin Books, 2008   Leszek Kołakowski (1927 – 2009) I recall reading one of Leslek Kolakowski's books in the early 1980s.   It was a book called simply Religion.   I remember its being a gripping read.   Leszek Kołakowski (1927 – 2009) was a Polish philosopher and, more correctly I believe, a historian of ideas on a par with another scholar, Isaiah Berlin. Kołakowski is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his three-volume history: Main Currents of Marxism. In 1986, Kołakowski was selected to give the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honour for achievement in the humanities.   Kołakowski's lecture, "The Idolatry of Politics", includes his much-quoted aphorism, "We learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are." Why is there Something rather than Nothing?: Qu...

That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern, Faber and Faber, 2005. I remember once attending a lecture by John McGahern in The National Library in Dublin on the art and craft of writing.   I was very impressed by his simplicity of delivery and his passionate intensity for literature.   That a brilliant author and literatus stood before us to speak of his art and craft was undeniable.   He was so relaxed and so knowledgeable of his field that he had us all listening with equal intensity.   We knew instinctively that we were in the presence of a brilliant author.   He did not seek to impress us with his learning but rather won us with his deep knowledge and wisdom. The above novel which, like the last book reviewed in these pages, has lain unread on my shelves since 2005.   Now, that is a travesty indeed, and witnesses to how busy, or perhaps idle by times, I have been in the interim.   McGahern’s final novel That They May Face the Ris...

Christopher Hitchens, Atlantic Books, London, 2007, God is not Great . This book is a gripping read.   The arguments for the prosecution are well marshalled in Mr Hitchens’ hands.   He writes like an angel, though  a dmittedly, there are those dyed-in-the-wool believers who would say possibly that our author writes like a devil.   However, Christopher Hitchens would be happy with both sentiments as he would judge them as mere metaphors. Hitchens, unfortunately, is now dead, Resquiescat in Pace!   However, during his lifetime he was an internationally respected journalist and intellectual.   As an intellectual, he was a colourful character with the quickest of minds, well able to engage in debate with anyone who wished to take up the challenge with him.   Moreover, he was a gifted polemicist, too.   He knew what he believed in, and was all too sure of his opinions and beliefs.   Perhaps, being a would-be philosopher myself in the Socratic mo...