Eric G Wilson
Author of Keep It Fake, Everyone Loves a good train wreck, and against happiness
Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "[Wilson] refers at one point to a list of excellent, engaging works that embody what he calls a 'perpetually playful multiplicity.' This book is certainly deserving of a spot on that list. The complete review is here.
The New York Times Book Review: [A] terrific new philosophical investigation . . . The great appeal to me of Wilson's view and this book [is] he is brave enough to admit that the work of trying to be a good person requires you to think very hard-yes, very honestly-about how you actually interact with others." Complete review here.
Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck
Keep It Fake
The Barnes and Noble Review: “[Wilson is] fluent and comfortable, whether he is poking for clues in the bewildering complexity of Edmund Burke’s sublime, as experienced in the stomach-dropping irresistibilty of, say, a tornado; the Jungian shadow, that archive of everything we hate about ourselves, those destructive crazes and unadmitted tendencies without recognition of which we would not be whole; or the simple, malicious pleasure of another’s misfortunes.” Here is the full review.
The Boston Globe: “A leisurely, light-footed overview of our cultural obsession with doom, gloom, and gore.” The review is here.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "As poetic as it is down-to-earth, “[Wilson's book] remains nuanced rather than definitive, contemplative rather than conclusive; exploring what makes us tick without judgments, no matter how firmly entrenched we are in “weirdtown.” Click here for more.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “Invoking everything from horror movies and television news footage of the Sept. 11 attacks to Dante’s tormented verse and Goya’s paintings of cannibals, Wilson makes a strong case that humans are natural-born rubberneckers . . . . [The book] necessarily deals with a host of grim subjects, yet there are also instances of unqualified beauty.” The review is here.
NPR.org: “Eric G. Wilson’s smart, probing new book . . . sets out to explain what lies beneath our collective fascination with death and suffering . . . .The book’s slim, peripatetic chapters cover an awful lot of erudite territory, as Wilson draws ideas and research from a delightful grab bag of academics, artists and thinkers. Aristotle, Freud, Kant, Goya and Hardy all make appearances, alongside an assortment of sociopaths and serial murderers.” Complete review here.
Kirkus Reviews: "An elliptical, provocative meditation that reads as much like a catharsis as a manifesto." See the complete review here.
Publishers Weekly: "Readers should be left entertained and enlightened by Wilson’s vast knowledge, immediacy, and honesty." See complete review here.