Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe [Paperback]

Andrew Boyd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2002

A dark, twisted, existential manifesto posing as a book of daily inspiration.

Revolutionizing the best-selling genre, this thinking man's parody hijacks the format of daily affirmations but offers a different message: only in paradox, truth; only in darkness, light; only in affliction, affirmation. These "daily afflictions" offer readers inspiration, practical advice, and food for thought, as they navigate the jungle of existential terror that begins anew each day. We follow the fictional Brother Void on a spiritual journey, both profound and hilarious, into self, family, love, career, death—and, ultimately, Enlightenment. We learn to "listen to our inner critic," appreciate "the nurturing power of dysfunctional families," "love the wrong person," "succeed at failure," "embrace our inner corpse," and, finally, withstand the "agony of being connected to everything in the Universe." Part spiritual autobiography, part ironic meditation, this tragicomic guide to life's sublime predicaments will elevate and educate the spirit. The truth will set you free, Brother Void reminds us, but first it will hurt like hell.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Self-help satirist Andrew Boyd (Life's Little Deconstruction Book) manages to turn the affirmations genre on its head and still offer some inspirational wisdom in Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe, a collection of brief meditations that urges readers to embrace sorrow and pain as the way to personal growth. Under tongue-in-cheeck headings like "Living a Worthless Life," "Keeping to the Dark Path," and "The Trajedy of Commitment," Boyd emphasizes that failure in work and love is a necessary part of conscious life, and that a person can recognize the darkness and futility of life yet still dive into it headlong.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Andrew Boyd is a writer and activist living in New York. He is the author of Life's Little Deconstruction Book: Self-Help for the Post-Hip

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (January 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393322815
• ISBN-13: 978-0393322811
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 7.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #343,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An affliction you want to be stricken with, December 15, 2001

By 

Jenny Levison (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe (Paperback)

You want to buy this book. No, actually, you want to buy 30 copies of this book, and you want to wrap them up in recycled wrapping paper, and you want to give them all your friends. Why? Because Brother Void understands you. And he understands your friends. (And he understands why your friends haven't been returning your calls.)

He groks the essential nature of your artistic passion, he understands your ambivalence, and he clearly gets your misguided attempts at finding true love. Not only does Brother Void understand you -- he understands Nietzsche (and he knows how to spell Nietzsche too.)

Daily Afflictions is an incredibly insightful, funny, intelligent, and meditative take on mortality, love, work, failure, politics, life in American society, and the 21st century self.

It's a small, beautiful book which can be read and re-read. It's perfect for the bus, for the beach house, for the bathroom, or for the bartender (who should probably memorize pages 37 to 43.)

There is not a wasted page in this work - it's a perfectly-crafted read from the introduction to the index.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Telling the truth; making me laugh, March 27, 2002

By 

"tagite" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe (Paperback)

...
I picked up Daily Afflictions as an afterthought, expecting it to be a relatively trite satire of self-help books. But as I read it, I laughed. And then I bought it. And then I bought another one.
The book sits by my bed and has, on occasion, helped me to get out of it--I have lost track of the times I've read particular passages (one of my favorites is the tragedy of commitment: "the future is full of possibilities that I must shoot in the head"). And what was originally just amusing is now actually inspirational. Daily Afflictions is a synthesis of philosophies I find persuasive, particularly existentialism, and it encourages me to plunge into things without fear of failure and wallow around in the hopelessness of it all.
Sound cheerful?
Boyd begins with an Oscar Wilde quote I enjoy and he seems to take to heart: "If you are going to tell people the truth, you had better make them laugh or they will kill you."
Boyd both makes me laugh and tells the truth--what more can you ask for?

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Angry, Morbid Inspiration, December 18, 2001

By 

Anthony Lappe (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe (Paperback)

I just got the book this weekend and read it from front to back in a feverish 4 am session. Boyd somehow combines the ideas of Nietzsche, Buddha, Camus, Gandhi and Lenny Bruce into a paradoxically coherent worldview that sums up everything I feel and think about politics, sex, drugs, love and hope. "Daily Afflictions" is often angry, morbid, and bleak - and it is the most inspirational thing I have read in years.

The book is the perfect holiday gift for the conflicted, hyper-sensitive worldchanger on your list.