David Brooks has earned his reputation as a conservative whom liberals can like by appearing both more principled and more flexible than the Republican consensus. For example, he argues in support of gay marriage that it would shore up the unfashionable virtues of traditional marriage. Like President Barack Obama—with whose administration he is said to be on exceptionally goo (...)
August 12, 2011
Books
Babbling Spirit
The Social AnimalThe Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and AchievementDavid BrooksRandom House, $27, 448 pp.
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Lord. It should not have taken you two thousand words to say simply that you despise David Brooks.
I, on the other hand, found The Social Animal fascinating and thought provoking. You've completely ignored its basic premises, given clearly in the introduction, and the reason for its structure as a story of two people, written in the present tense:
"I use these characters to bridge the gap between the sort of general patterns researchers describe and the individual experiences of real life."
In other words, it's a popular book for a general audience. Clearly, you wanted him to write something else.