A review by debi_g
The Course of Love by Alain de Botton
4.0
"It is a privilege to be the recipient of a sulk; it means the other person respects us and trusts us enough to think we should understand their unspoken hurt. It is one of the odder gifts of love" (63).
"Even the most Eloquent among us at instinctively prefer not to spell things out when it partners are at risk of failing to read us properly...only when we don't have to explain can we feel certain that we are genuinely understood" (64).
"Adventure and security are irreconcilable...a loving marriage and children kill erotic spontenaity, and an affair kills a marriage. A person cannot at once be a libertine and a married romantic, however compelling both paradigms might be" (181).
"The fault lies with art, not life...we may need to tell ourselves more accurate stories--stories that don't dwell so much on the beginning, that don't promise us complete understanding, that strive to normalize our troubles and show us a melancholy yet hopeful path through the course of love" (218).
The Course of Love is atypical. It reminds me of a Leo Buscaglia book or even The Celestine Prophecy or Paulo Cohelo's writing-- an extended parable is used as a frame for rumination.
I'm glad I read it, and I recommend it for those unafraid of leading an examined life.
"Even the most Eloquent among us at instinctively prefer not to spell things out when it partners are at risk of failing to read us properly...only when we don't have to explain can we feel certain that we are genuinely understood" (64).
"Adventure and security are irreconcilable...a loving marriage and children kill erotic spontenaity, and an affair kills a marriage. A person cannot at once be a libertine and a married romantic, however compelling both paradigms might be" (181).
"The fault lies with art, not life...we may need to tell ourselves more accurate stories--stories that don't dwell so much on the beginning, that don't promise us complete understanding, that strive to normalize our troubles and show us a melancholy yet hopeful path through the course of love" (218).
The Course of Love is atypical. It reminds me of a Leo Buscaglia book or even The Celestine Prophecy or Paulo Cohelo's writing-- an extended parable is used as a frame for rumination.
I'm glad I read it, and I recommend it for those unafraid of leading an examined life.