Nothing to Be Frightened Of - Hardcover
Two years after the best-selling Arthur & George, Julian Barnes gives us a memoir on mortality that touches on faith and science and family as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who over the centuries have confronted the same questions he now poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction.
If the fear of death is “the most rational thing in the world,” how does one contend with it? An atheist at twenty, an agnostic at sixty, Barnes looks into the various arguments for and against and with God, and at the bloodline whose archivist, following his parents’ death, he has become—another realm of mystery, wherein a drawer of mementos and his own memories (not to mention those of his philosopher brother) often fail to connect. There are other ancestors, too: the writers—“most of them dead, and quite a few of them French”—who are his daily companions, supplemented by composers and theologians and scientists whose similar explorations are woven into this account with an exhilarating breadth of intellect and felicity of spirit.
Deadly serious, masterfully playful, and surprisingly hilarious, Nothing to Be Frightened Of is a riveting display of how this supremely gifted writer goes about his business and a highly personal tour of the human condition and what might follow the final diagnosis.
If the fear of death is “the most rational thing in the world,” how does one contend with it? An atheist at twenty, an agnostic at sixty, Barnes looks into the various arguments for and against and with God, and at the bloodline whose archivist, following his parents’ death, he has become—another realm of mystery, wherein a drawer of mementos and his own memories (not to mention those of his philosopher brother) often fail to connect. There are other ancestors, too: the writers—“most of them dead, and quite a few of them French”—who are his daily companions, supplemented by composers and theologians and scientists whose similar explorations are woven into this account with an exhilarating breadth of intellect and felicity of spirit.
Deadly serious, masterfully playful, and surprisingly hilarious, Nothing to Be Frightened Of is a riveting display of how this supremely gifted writer goes about his business and a highly personal tour of the human condition and what might follow the final diagnosis.
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Review:
"The overall effect is that of an edifying conversation with an interesting, knowledgeable but refreshingly unpretentious thinker."
Book Description:
A brilliant, discursive, very funny book about death and the fear of death, god, nature, nurture and the author's childhood. The closest thing to a memoir Barnes will ever write.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherAlfred a Knopf Inc
- Publication date2008
- ISBN 10 0307269639
- ISBN 13 9780307269638
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages244
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. Third Printing, October 2008. Bright, clean & tight copy, unread in NEW condition. "An essay in the best sense: speculative and precise, intimate and metaphysical, capacious and democratic in the variety of voices, alive and dead, that are invited to counsel the author as he edges his way toward the void."---Brian Dillon "Superb---a disquisition on death that addresses religion, philosophy, literature, identity, memory, evolutionary biology, and the nature of the universe. It is his funniest and frankest work yet."---The Daily Telegraph. Pristine copy w/sharp corners & deckle edge, square & tight binding; a beautiful Knopf production, quite presentable. Seller Inventory # RUB1047
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Nothing to Be Frightened of
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Alfred a Knopf Inc
(2008)
ISBN 10: 0307269639
ISBN 13: 9780307269638
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. no edition stated edition. 256 pages. 8.75x6.00x0.75 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # 0307269639
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