Garry Wills has a witty demolition of a new book, All Things Shining, attempting to sketch a philosophy of life in the current New York Review of Books. I've not read the book. But as described by Wills it seems silly. (The conclusion apparently includes a meditation on the deeper meaning of making one's own coffee.) And yet it has blurbs from figures I greatly admire, and whose work I know reasonably well (Charles Taylor) and also big names in American higher education (Vartan Gregorian). I wonder: is Wills too harsh or do these big names endorse books they don't even read?Update:See Sean Kelly's thoughtful (and admirably undefensive) response to Wills here. I take this to mean that Kelly (and Taylor and his other admirers) have something important to say, and that I need to actually read the book.

John T. McGreevy is the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost at the University of Notre Dame.

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