Uncommercial Traveller Book

Damn! This book just confirms my desire to have Alain de Botton as a friend. What a smart, erudite, witty, unassuming mensch this guy is. With a quirky curiosity that helps him take an interesting perspective on almost any subject he tackles. His previous books shows his willingness to take on quite a variety of topics. but, of all his books that I've read thus far, the subject of work seems particularly well-suited to his particular (and prodigious) talent.

The book consists of ten chapters, in each of which the author explores a specific job in depth. The text is augmented throughout with photographs by Richard Baker, about 15 per chapter. These serve as an excellent complement to de Botton's remarks and reinforce one of the book's major strengths, which is Alain de Botton's skill for anchoring his exploration of profound questions pertaining to work (what to do with one's life? how to combine earning money with attaining fulfilment? how to balance career and family obligations?) in intelligently chosen, concrete examples.

A listing of the ten chapters gives an idea of the wide-ranging and eclectic nature of his investigation:

1. Cargo Ship Spotting
2. Logistics (including a photo essay which follows the path of a tuna from its capture in a Maldives fishing boat to the supermarket shelf)
3. Biscuit Manufacture
4. Career Counselling
5. Rocket Science
6. Painting
7. Transmission Engineering
8. Accountancy
9. Entrepeneurship
10. Aviation

The list fails to convey the charm and subtlety of de Botton's writing - to appreciate those, you'll have to read the book yourself. In each chapter there is something to delight - the author's curiosity will make you think about commonplace things in a new way, and his thoughtfulness and erudition make him a charming tour guide. The chapter on "rocket science", centred around a trip to French Guiana to report on the launch of a French-made communications satellite commissioned by a Japanese TV station, is a tour de force of nonfiction writing. But de Botton's particular talent shines through most obviously in those chapters which appear superficially least promising. You think to yourself - how can anyone write about biscuit manufacturing, or accountancy, and be interesting? Then you read the chapters in question, and re-read them, and think - how the hell did he do that?

This book is riveting. No review can do it full justice. You really do need to read it yourself. It's certainly among the top five non-fiction books I've read in the past ten years.

A desultory meditation, by turns erudite and sardonic. De Botton uses the examples of ten occupations as entry points into associative digressions, but he never gives the workers themselves any voice. While this oversight limits the scope of what he can accomplish in a work that he himself commends to his readers as "reportage," the altar of self-conscious melancholy whereupon the Other is sacrificed proves worthy of contemplation.

And now, a digression of my own.

De Botton notes that he gave a lecture at California State University, Bakersfield, and that the lecture was "notable for its near-unanimous absence of attendees." This observation neither surprises me nor strikes me as dishonest because I am, regrettably, from Bakersfield and, regrettably, well acquainted with what constitutes its milieu (if courting Sarah Palin to speak at "conferences," MONSTER TRUCK PANDEMONIUM THIS SATURDAY!SATURDAY!SATURDAY!, and a fast food chain restaurant on every corner can even be said to qualify as a milieu). What does surprise and strike me as dishonest is that De Botton then claims to get lost when he leaves Bakersfield. Seriously? There're basically two ways into this shit city. Granted, they pretty much look the same, what with their low desert scrub and billboards promising a better life in the military; however, if you've mistaken them for something else, I gotta say that you've seriously underestimated the gravity of your situation and I, therefore, question your intelligence and the veracity thereof. Now, my problem with his claim is that he ends up in nearby Mojave as a result, where he is summarily cussed by a native (THAT I buy). And, frankly, I'm cool with it because De Botton has shown himself to be a tourist that is too clever by half.