These essays alternate in a rather bi-polar fashion between autobiography and philosophical reflection. Having done this kind of stuff myself I prefer to view them as applied philosophy rather that pretentious ponderings. He compares fidelity in marriage and football, comparing the Italian and British approaches. As he translates Calasso he wonders how the sun might affect his output, and about his son taking a language test.
I was relieved to see that though the author is "the best british author working today" (Brodsky), the winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys prize, the Somerset Maugham award, and the Betty Trask award, and someone shortlisted for the 1997 Booker prize, he also got a D for creative writing at university and had each of his first 7 novels rejected at least 20 times.
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