Customer Reviews

Help: The Original Human Dilemma

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a book that will appeal particularly ro those of us who feel that more than anything else help gives our lives meaning. But as the author (Keiser) puts it in a pessimistic moment, we cry out eagerly as children, "I can help!" and in old age we lament, "I was no help at all." We've probably all reflected and even been troubled that our reasons for helping are often selfish, and our sincere good intentions sometimes fail to help. Keizer somewhat downplays the heroism of help, portraying it as something integral to a healthy humanity, and often most effective in the mundane context of daily life and work. There are chapters examining in every which way the parable of the good Samaritan, the efforts of author Norman Mailer to help a convicted murderer with a literary gift, who tragically went on to kill again shortly after his prison release, the villagers of Le Chambon who hid Jewish refugees during World War II, the gritty nobility of helping professions, etc.

Keiser has a writerly fascination with language and literary curlicues that in another context I might appreciate, but with this subject matter I found myself getting annoyed with his "cleverness." Clearly that's his style but to me it came across a bit like someone enamored of the sound of his own voice.

I had high expectations of this book when I bought it (I can afford to buy a full-price hardcover only extremely rarely). It was worth the money and the time and I would definitely recommend it. It did disappoint me particularly in one way however, which was its much less depth of attention to the problems of receiving help--the orientation is mainly toward being the helper. As a retired clergyman the author clearly identifies as a helper and makes some assumptions that his readers will be materially secure, socially conscious helper types. I fit the latter part of that profile, but as a poor person and a person with a degree of disability I've experienced receiving help as perhaps even more complex and morally and emotionally fraught than helping. I was going to give only 4 stars for this reason, but I've changed my mind in the hopes that Keizer will write a companion volume, "Helped."

The book does include some nice discussion of recognizing the moral agency of the person being helped, and his or her own need to help--I appreciated that, while the emphasis was mostly on helping, the book largely avoids objectifying those being helped, which I think goes hand in hand with not glorifying the heroism of the helper.

In other words, a healthy and organic rather than romanticized concept of help.

You'll never look at help in the same way after reading this unique and gripping book. The author explores the human urge to help in all its heartbreaking, paradoxical complexity. Unflinching in his vision but always humane and compassionate (and even funny at moments), this is a fascinating guided tour of twists and turns through our often-tangled motives, our cherished ideals and the difficult realities of our individual lives. If you're a fan of Keizer's amazing essays for HARPER'S Magazine, you'll love HELP.

One of the best books I have read.
The book is about the one question that comes up again and again in one's life. But that is not what it is limited to. The real value of this book lies in the depth with which it tackles the issue, from all angles, without taking sides.
Rarely do I encounter a book which starts so many thoughts, plants so many ideas.
It is a book for the thinking person.

And I am lucky to have come across it at the right time in my life. If I had read it three years ago, I would have dismissed it as irrelevant, overly cyclical, stating the obvious. Only now can I appreciate it for what it really is.

Last year, we used this book for our Lenten Wednesday discussions. We decided on it because I mentioned to the other pastors that I was reading this book and really liked the first two chapters. When another pastor heard the writer's name, she said she had read things by him that she had really liked. So, we recommended it to our parishes. The problem with this book is that Rev. Keizer needed someone to help him clarify what he really wanted to say in the middle chapters. That is, he needed an editor who would be honest with him about his thought process rather than just puclish everything he wrote.
He went off on tangents that were not particularly germaine to the general topic. It worked as a rumination on his own experiences and would have been better if that's the approach he had taken. Instead, he tried to deal with issues much more generally. Rev. Keizer is both thoughtful and caring. I applaud him for those attributes in this book, but I could have used some "help" tryin to understand where he really was going with his ideas in the mid to late chapters. Then, in the last chapter, he returned to clarity again. I know that we were sorry we had chosen THIS book to recommend to our parishioners. This book is a wonderful idea, but it still needs some sorting through by the writer and editor.

Have not started reading this yet but I liked the reviews and the subject matter. Look forward to starting it soon.

This book will sucker you, and I don't mean that in a good way. It starts out as a hard-nosed, nicely-written discussion of what it means to help someone and the rewards and troubles that may ensue. The first half of the book presents a number-but not as many as the jacket blurbs would have you believe-of the philosophical conundrums of giving and receiving help; as a one-time teacher and recently-retired minister the author has had lots of personal and practical experience in the area. Then about halfway through the screen of objectivity starts to slip and the author's radical leftist colors begin peeking out here and there. By the last third of the book the text has become a confused, softheaded 'social liberation theory' polemic for some sort of a semi-Marxist utopia where, I guess, everyone devotes his or her existence to helping each other. This may be fine if you already believe that sort of thing, but the argument isn't convincing and to a more neutral reader it comes off like a rant. Heaven help the conservative who stumbles on this piece of work; the author has no help (or compassion) for him or her. Which is too bad because the original topic-the paradox of help-is worthy of any amount of reasoned discussion, and the author's nice writing (if you discount the usual self-centered boomer "I this... and I that..." style) draws you in. But the journey doesn't go to its advertised destintation, and I'd say spend your time and money elsewhere.