Perhaps it stems from recent work wobbles of my own, meaning that the book came at just the right time, but I am coming down on de Botton’s side with this one. I wanted to read the book myself, to judge it, as far as possible, on its merits. What seemed a shame to me was that some of the criticism of de Botton suggested that because of his privileged background – because unlike most of us, he would not have to work if he did not choose to – he was not entitled to write about the world of the wage-slave. Irrespective of the merits of his complaints, they make him look touchy and petulant. The most renowned of these spats is succinctly reported here, and includes de Botton’s reaction to the whole affair. This year he has acquired a reputation (“Alain de Botton is the new Jeanette Winterson” – Daily Beast) of making bad-tempered responses to his critics. But discussion of Alain de Botton’s The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work has centred less on the book than on the author.
If there is any longer such a thing as a much-talked-about book, then surely this is it.
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