The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
Sick of striving? Giving up on grit? Had enough of hustle culture? Daunted by the 10,000-hour rule? Relax: As the French know, it's the best way to be better at everything.
In the realm of love, what could be less seductive than someone who's trying to seduce you? Seduction is the art of succeeding without trying, and that's a lesson the French have mastered. We can see it in their laissez-faire parenting, chic style, haute cuisine, and enviable home cooking: They barely seem to be trying, yet the results are world-famous--thanks to a certain je ne sais quoi that is the key to a more creative, fulfilling, and productive life. For fans of both Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life, philosopher Ollivier Pourriol's The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard draws on the examples of such French legends as Descartes, Stendhal, Rodin, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Françoise Sagan to show how to be efficient à la française, and how to effortlessly reap the rewards.
A PENGUIN LIFE TITLE
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
French novelist Pourriol makes his English-language debut with a disappointing study of the elusive state of ease. For Pourriol, "ease," or effortlessness, is enigmatic, and, unfortunately, his observations on it are frustratingly contradictory. For instance, achieving a state of grace (or to be "in the zone") will remain elusive to anyone who tries, pays attention, rehearses, or even thinks about it; and yet one has to train, work smart, and put in "10,000 hours" of practice to become successful at it. Repetitive lessons are extrapolated from the experience of tightrope walkers (to take the first step you must be sure of the last), deep-sea divers, and hypnotists ("elementary dreaming can make effort easy"), as well as the works of Emile "Alain" Chartier, Rene Descartes, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Pourriol's oversimplified deduction that ease is achieved when one is not thinking is best exemplified by an anecdote about actor G rard Depardieu, who claim that he acts best when reciting lines in a foreign language he doesn't know. A later chapter, meanwhile, consists of a retelling of one of Pourriol's tutoring sessions that devolves into a rambling lecture and summation of the book's core tenets. Perhaps the recommendation to not try so hard to gain understanding will be of use to readers when trying to parse this unconvincing guide.
