Time and the Art of Living [Paperback]

Robert Grudin English Professor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1997

This is a book about time--about one's own journey through it and, more important, about enlarging the pleasure one takes in that journey. It's about memory of the past, hope and fear for the future, and how they color, for better and for worse, one's experience of the present. Ultimately, it's a book about freedom--freedom from despair of the clock, of the aging body, of the seeming waste of one's daily routine, the freedom that comes with acceptance and appreciation of the human dimensions of time and of the place of each passing moment on life's bounteous continuum. For Robert Grudin, living is an art, and cultivating a creative partnership with time is one of the keys to mastering it. In a series of wise, witty, and playful meditations, he suggests that happiness lies not in the effort to conquer time but rather in learning "to bend to its curve," in hearing its music and learning to dance to it. Grudin offers practical advice and mental exercises designed to help the reader use time more effectively, but this is no ordinary self-help book. It is instead a kind of wisdom literature, a guide to life, a feast for the mind and for the spirit.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Time and the Art of Living" is a philosophical essay about the relationship between two facts: that we each "strut and fret upon the stage" for a terrifyingly short slice of objective time, and that subjective time, our experience of temporality, is deeply informed by our chosen activities and our character.

Robert Grudin thinks that our subjective sense of time is largely determined by the degree and quality of attention we pay to our memories and our sense of the future. (It is a mark of the unhappy that they are trapped in the present without a larger sense of connection to the enduring self.) And he argues persuasively that the successful and the fulfilled become so because of the control they exercise over this subjective temporal embodiment. At its best, Time and the Art of Living is a profound book with lyrically beautiful prose. --Richard Farr

Review

"A book to savor, treasure, linger over: the rare and amazing spectacle of man thinking, of mind at work." -- Edward Abbey

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1ST edition (September 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395898315
• ISBN-13: 978-0395898314
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to accompany your life December 30, 2001

By John Parman

Format:Paperback

Robert Grudin's "Time and the Art of Living" is about how we exist in time, and the role time plays in our lives, for better if we make productive use of it, or for worse if we ignore it. Not a self-help book, it is nonetheless a book that I come back to every several years, both for its accessible erudition and for its suggestions for giving shape to your life in time. Highly recommended.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable observations about humans and time. October 28, 1995

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

360 very brief interconnected observations about aspects of how humans experience, distort, learn from, and ignore the flow of time. Rich in science, philosophy, and ideas that can be helpful in your life and your thinking. Deft and accessible, to be meditated upon or dipped into at random

32 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What to do in Time April 1, 2001

By "arlodriver"

Format:Paperback

I would like to take a slightly different tact in reviewing this title, and that is to describe the pertinent circumstances in which I re-read it. I came back to Grudin's beautiful little volume after finally making my way through Heidegger's "Being and Time". I struggled through the weightier tome, and believe that I mined several nuggets of wisdom from it, although I think for the most part the battle was not always worth the rewards. I may be an immature reader of Heidegger, but it's hard to justify the complete murder of prose and order even in the attempt to establish new (or perhaps just unpopular) views. Heidegger's ideas on space and time however whetted my appetite for further explorations (especially since he seemed to leave so many paths untread). "Time and the Art of Living" is not a dense philosophical treatise, but it manages to be profound for both it's poetic style, and refreshing observations. Where Being and Time remains unsatisfying in clarity for the philosopher, and partial and vague for the existential thinker, Time and Art is direct and compelling enough to change a life. It's mission is not the same, but it is all the more succesful for realizing what needs to be said about the time in our lives. Grudin celebrates clear goals and vision as our anchor in the time of the present. Such clarity and humanism when contrasted with many other explorations shines forth brightly.