Unforgettable History and the Arts: A Guide to Cultural Amnesia

Amazon Customer: This remains one of the most erudite, interesting and engaging books I have ever read. I am amazed at the skill and breadth of CJ and his humour always gives me a wry chuckle. This book now has more annotations than any other book I have in my library- enough said

Australia on Nov 07, 2022

Francis O Walker: Georg Lichtenberg, one of the many subjects in this extended ramble, wrote: "Sometimes men come by the name of genius in the same way that certain insects come by the name of centipede; not because they have one hundred feet but because most people cannot count above fourteen. " In the 27 pages on this philosopher, Clive manages to name 115 authors, cinematographers and actors, 52 literary characters, and over 60 titles. Later, writing about Montesquieu, he remarks how often he has reread the Amis novel "Lucky Jim" because no one remembers the details of a book after one year--hence, perhaps, the name of this book, which is a desperate fight against his own inescapable conclusion. Good material is not lacking-- but finding it is more of a chore than a pleasure.

United States on Jul 22, 2021

Dr Merry: delivery and quality excellent.... thank you to all..

Germany on Feb 19, 2021

bernardrodgers: Brilliant book delivered quickly, just as described

United Kingdom on Jun 16, 2018

DJT: Excellent brain fodder

United Kingdom on Jan 10, 2018

The South Seas cruiser: I love Clive - he shaped my life. It's so great to sit down and read a thinking person. Intelligence and calm wit ... and all the time, that wonderful voice in your head. Thank you Clive.

United Kingdom on Sep 12, 2014

C. Greg Freeman: I am currently a little over halfway through reading this book, and already it has had me reaching for more and more information. In fact, while reading this book, I picked up a copy of The Rebel by Albert Camus, finished it entirely, and also attempted to read War and Peace by Tolstoy. I gave up 500 pages into War and Peace, but I was able to understand James' references to it later on in the text.

There were several moments where James caught me entirely off-guard with his stealth humor, and many of his essays are very enlightening. I loved his essay on Duke Ellington, for instance, because I've danced to his music for years and knew only a small amount of the peripheral knowledge of the time that James has to offer.

So far, his essay on Georg Christoph Lichtenberg has been my favorite of the bunch. He, lucidly and beautifully, got to the essence of writing, carrying a theme all the way to the decadence of contemporary pornagraphy. He includes details that a more cautious and less confident writer would have dropped, and those details were not there for the shock value but to reinforce the point.

I will probably re-read several of these essays due to the...

United States on Jan 17, 2011

C-Dub: I read this book a few months ago but cannot stop thinking about it -- the very antithesis of Cultural Amnesia.

There are several things i found memorable about this book and Clive James' writing style. First, it was completely unpredictable. He might begin an essay with one quote or pretext that would imply a central idea, and then he would veer off in another direction entirely. Somehow, he is able to accomplish this misdirection without seeming erratic. In several cases, i felt a genuine epiphany as it dawned upon me what he was getting at.

Second, he mixes in many relatively obscure (at least they were obscure for me) figures from history, particularly from 20th Century France and Germany. It is refreshing to discover some unusual figures in history that have escaped broader attention yet still had a measurable impact, for good or ill.

Third, the prose is rich yet remains efficient. Each sentence is constructed deliberately and serves a necessary purpose. The wit is quick, recalling the best of Winston Churchill. The heft of the book is because it is mostly muscle, with little fat.

In short, it is readable and a revelation. A rare...

United States on Sep 17, 2009

Retired Reader: This book is filled with people well worth knowing about. Most are literary folks and some are `personalities' in the best sense of the word. The majority are urbane and literate. The author, Clive James, is very erudite and sophisticated. Yet in the end this book is disappointing. Why should this be the case?

Perhaps it is because James is a bit too taken with his own erudition. This comes through in many of the essays in this book and is sometimes quite annoying. Then there is the simple fact that most of the essays are far too short to really develop their admittedly fascinating subjects. Of those subjects whose writings this reviewer is familiar with such as Albert Camus and Marcel Proust, both were treated in a rather superficial and not terribly original way. In the essay on Edward Gibbon, James treats one of the most monumental historical works in the English language as a literary exercise and fails to note how much fun Gibbon obviously had in writing it. In his essay about the existentialist philosophy of Jean Paul Sartre, he fails to note that Sartre the novelist provided a far more authentic (so to speak) rationale for existentialism than Sartre the philosopher....

United States on Jun 01, 2007