![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() His new book is called The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, and immediately provokes the furious question, what do you know about work? De Botton is the son of a fabulously wealthy Swiss financier, has never worked in a factory or shop in his life, and only briefly worked in an office, part-time, when he was making TV documentaries. The weird thing is I find it possible to hold both views about de Botton almost simultaneously - I can flip between the two while reading just one paragraph of his writing. I s Alain de Botton the biggest pseud and poseur of all time, or a brilliant writer who asks intriguing questions? The Guardian has always been pretty clear on the matter: "He's an absolute pair-of-aching balls of a man - a slapheaded, ruby-lipped pop philosopher who's forged a lucrative career stating the bleeding obvious." But then he has fans like Edmund White, Roger Scruton, John Banville, Jan Morris and John Updike, who called him "dazzling". ![]()
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