Showing how to summarize a book
ON (ABSURD) HUMAN CONDITION
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
This is the finest theoretical work on absurdity.
Camus compares the human condition to the fate of Sisyphus, eternally condemned to push a rock up a hill, a fable that will resonate with all those obliged to work for a living.
But Camus argues, convincingly, that Sisyphus can be happy with his rock.
The book is short, exquisitely well-written, and full of sentences that should be on coffee mugs, T-shirts and fridge magnets everywhere.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
This hilarious and terrifying account of a Caribbean Luxury Cruise is scrupulous documentary realism but also a contemporary fable.
The perfect symbol of the age is a cruise liner – a gigantic mobile pleasure palace conveying outsize infants in pastel leisurewear round a series of shopping venues.
Wallace reports, in amazement: "I have heard upscale adult US citizens ask the Guest Relations Desk whether snorkelling necessitates getting wet, whether the skeetshooting will be held outside, whether the crew sleeps on board, and what time the Midnight Buffet is."
