The Social Animal
by David Brooks
Random House Audio (audiobook)
The Social Animal, narrated ably by Arthur Morey, will remind readers that using imaginary characters in serious non-fiction rarely works. David Brooks, a New York Times columnist who writes about policy and politics, should have known this. But still he created fictional people to act out the conclusions of researchers who have studied how the conscious and unconscious minds interact. 'Helping' him synthesise their findings into one narrative are Harold - whose middle-class, stable upbringing somehow strips him of ambition - and Erica, who refuses to let a precarious childhood stand in the way of a business career (if her Mexican father had not been around, she and her Chinese mother would have slid into poverty). The breadth of Brooks' reading is impressive: he is never short of references to this finding and that study. Unfortunately, in attempting to integrate 'science and psychology with sociology, politics, cultural commentary and the literature of success', Brooks has tried to do too much in The Social Animal.
Extras: none