Customer Reviews

Kiss & Tell

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Outstanding fictional examination of how we perceive each other as humans as well as the art and form of biography. The narrator, derided as being self-absorbed, decides to write a biography of the next person he meets. Thus, we are treated to his attempt to do this with "Isabel", a young London woman he meets at a party. De Botton spins it all with a very light, often comic, touch, and yet manages to raise some fairly deep issues relating to how our perceptions of others are formed and shape our actions. Very good stuff which makes me want to find his other work and read it immediately. Fans of "High Fidelity" will likely find this a slightly higher-brow, but very enjoyable book. See also "On Love" and "The Romantic Movement."

After finishing Alain de Botton's biography/novel KISS AND TELL, I found myself hoping on behalf of its putative subject Isabel Jane Rogers that this work is more fiction than fact. Or at least that "Isabel" is a composite of every young woman the author ever dated and not a real individual person. Although de Botton catalogs many of "Isabel's" quirky habits (her poor sense of geography, the way she picks her nose and chews on the callouses on her fingers, etc.), he exhibits enough of his own dubious traits (for instance, he admits letting her plants die unwatered while devouring half a box of her chocolates while house-sitting for her one time) to give us a sense that in some unprovable way, he is at least playing fair.

But under this delicious patina of pettiness, there are a number of more serious subjects. Such as the nature of biography itself. And whether our versions of ourselves are any more reliable than those of an outside observer. The nature of memory. And a comparison of the virtues and liabilities of the fat, detail-obsessed Boswelian biographies versus the "toast-sized", summary-style biographical sketches of an Aubrey. (Anyone who has read--or tried to write--an obituary for a family member will find the chapter "In Search of an Ending" fascinating.) And anyone who is familiar with de Botton's other works will not be surprised how he manages to draw the likes of Marcel Proust, Adam Smith, Frederick Nietzsche, Tolstoy, and Hippocrates into the conversation, as well as zany bits of pop psychology like graphology, palmistry, and magazine personality questionnaires. To support the trope that KISS AND TELL is a real biography, de Botton even provides a 12-page, fully functioning index (complete with entries on "toenails" and "sex.") As a work of fiction, KISS AND TELL isn't nearly as interesting as his earlier novel, ON LOVE, but it is an amusing book...and it will make you think about your own quirks and self-delusions.

Okay, I may have not read the *entire* book, but I did read a spectacular passage from "Kiss and Tell" during my AP Literature and Composition exam. It's not often I grin after reading AP test passages. However, that brief excertp from De Bottom's novel had me grinning and absolutely praising whatever AP God had seen fit to bless me w/ such a delightful passage to write about.

I was so intrigued by the passage, I actually decided to buy the book after I was done. (How often does that happen?)

Some of this book is brillant. De Botton thoughts on memory and how we view relationships can be amazing. He also can be funny. I was impressed with many of his ideas. On the other hand, by page 150 or so, I found the constant analysis of biographic form to be grating. I can see why Isabel felt as she did at time (although she is no great woman by any means). Again (as in On Love, a far superior book), we have a nameless narrator and no details on his life. Oh well. It is amusing at times, but not worth the time invested. Alas, I shall fall silent now.

Kiss & Tell by Alain deBotton is one of the few works of fiction he's published. I ran across his work when I had a client who owned an upscale dating service with a psych practice. I've devoured everything he's written since then. This will appeal to fiction readers who appreciate charm and intelligence along with a good creative story.

Alain de Botton writes in a most entertaining and witty style and makes for a fantastic reading experience. My perception may have been influenced by having just been dumped... Then again, I guess it's probably better to be reading his books it a situation of lonliness or unhappiness that after you've just fallen madly in love. Or maybe the latter just never happened to me in the right moment, i.e. when reading one of his books...

This is de Botton's strangest book - half biography, half novel, but it really works. The idea sounds strange, but he pulls it off, managing to write a book that is not only emotionally effecting, but also highly thought-provoking. Their are pencil marks all over my copy.

Alain de Botton's narration is intellectually entertaining in this biographical account of a woman he ultimately falls for . . . If you enjoyed Bridget Jones's Diary, then you must meet her as a male biographer in Kiss & Tell. Alain's language is very crafty and tastefully hilarious. Pop culture and classical philosophy meets in this comedic celebration of the 90s love life.

The author proposes to reflect on the subject of biographies. There are some interesting thoughts in this novel, particularly when the author dwells on what a good biography should be like. He discusses the question of the biographer's empathy with the subject or what subjects should be worthy of a biography, the question of its length and whether its role is to make the reader understand other people. Perhaps when reading a biography there is a desire to find out how one differs from personalities like W.H. Auden, Napoleon or Verdi. But is it worthwhile for the biographer to be tormented by the question of how many grains of salt his subject put on his eggs, as Ximenes Doudan was about Julius Caesar? Is the Picasso of the blue period really the same man as the one who painted Guernica at the end of his life? How can the biographer understand the subject's experiences of which he himself has no experience?
Aside from such reflexions - even though treated quite superficially - the book contains lengthy observations of the banal habits of a young lady called Isabel Rogers who lives in London and whose biography will interest very few readers indeed.

This book was a hoot! The premise is that a biographer will write a biography about the next person he meets. Turns out to be a 20-something vaguely-flakish opinionated woman who he takes on as first a subject, then a girlfriend. There are hilarious "academic" rusings on the Nature of Biography," all wonderfully warped to accommodate the lovely Isabelle's life.