Against Identity [Paperback]

Leon Wieseltier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1996

a collections of aphorisms

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Small Pr Distribution (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188438112X
• ISBN-13: 978-1884381126
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,392,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ponderable but not Ponderous, July 17, 2000

By 

benjamin balint (washington, dc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Against Identity (Hardcover)

Against Identity, an expanded version of a piece Wieseltier published in the New Republic (where he is literary editor) is a collection of the author's musings on the modern notion of identity. In sentences ponderable but never ponderous - and always aphoristically tight - Wieseltier charges, among other things, that "identity" is often conceptually linked with conformity and with blindness to the nuanced complexity of an individual's multiple identities. Like his more popular Kaddish, this is a book well worth dipping into.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Welcomed and Timeless Treasure, August 31, 2005

By 

S. Gaston (ATLANTA, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Against Identity (Paperback)

I gained more knowledge and understanding from this 74-page collection of aphorisms than from all the books I've ever read on the complex subject of multi-culturalism in America.

Identity is a paradox: It fills us with pride, while it burdens us with expectations and responsibilites of conformity.

The book is right. "Only one in possession of an identity would understand why one would wish to be rid of it."