Review - The End is not Found at the Beginning
17th September 2008
Philip Rieff’s last publications, “My Life Among the Deathworks” and “Charisma,” are two of the best books I’ve read in nearly 50 years of my life as a Common Reader and I recommend them to anyone who reads and thinks. This book, “The Jew of Culture,” the volume III of posthumous publications, does not warrant the same positive opinion. This is not worth a serious reader’s time and effort.
Much of the book is composed of much earlier publications from Philip Rieff and it would be wiser to read those earlier books rather than this compliation. I can recommend this book as a quick source for contrast to Life/Deathworks and Charisma to demonstrate the incredible development of Rieff’s thinking and writing over his life. The books at the end are vastly superior to everything before. While it is not as if I’m reading two different thinkers - you can see his last works in his first - the quality of writing and thinking is qualitatively stronger at the end. (Which should give hope to everyone who is no longer a Kid.)
“The Jew of Culture” strikes me as a book produced primarily for the editors and publishers rather than for the author. This is hardly a “pay-day” book where somebody gets even financially, but it is not a book, I think, that Rieff would have published while living. It offers nothing new from Rieff, but allows those who loved and respected him to demonstrate that love and respect. I appreciate this and honor the intentions of people involved, but the book suffers as a result.
Please understand Rieff through Deathworks and Charisma.