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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2010
If you revel in hearing somebody say things that you would secretly like to say but won't - out of fear of becoming a social pariah - then this is the book for you. John Derbyshire has a knack for saying things that will get up pretty well everyone's nose, even the olfactories of his more sympathetic readers. You will be rolling along happily, tittering merrily at one or another of the author's frequent bon mots, murmuring "attaboy John" as he slaughters yet another of your most hated sacred cows, and then out of the blue he will say something that will get up even your own mucho simpatico nose.
But then that's John Derbyshire for you. He really doesn't seem to give a toss whether you like him or not and this gives his book an oddly exhilarating quality. It's liberating to hear Things That Should Not Be Said and Derbyshire is fearless about giving them utterance. And he does this in conversational, unselfconsciously epigramatic prose with a mordant humour that often threatens to break out into uproarious high-spirits. Despite the Breaking Taboos tenor of the book, Derbyshire doesn't seem as if he's out primarily to shock people. Making shocking statements is merely a by-product of what he sees as his central purpose; telling the unvarnished truth about things without any smiley-face concessions to optimism, hope, or wish-fulfillment fantasy. His metaphysics is S-C-I-E-N-C-E (or in human affairs B-I-O-L-O-G-Y) and his prognosis is D-I-S-M-A-L. If you want nuanced positions, humm-ing and ha-ing, equivocating, compromising, and trying to please everybody, look elsewhere. This is not a scholarly work but a full-on statement of a point of view and it will excite polarizing reactions. If you're a Big-Government Liberal, a believer in the perfectibility of Man, religious, prickly on questions of race, a military Hawk, a proponent of Diversity, and/or a supporter of education for the advancement of Mankind, approach with extreme caution.
Which leaves just me and maybe a couple of hundred others.......
But then that's John Derbyshire for you. He really doesn't seem to give a toss whether you like him or not and this gives his book an oddly exhilarating quality. It's liberating to hear Things That Should Not Be Said and Derbyshire is fearless about giving them utterance. And he does this in conversational, unselfconsciously epigramatic prose with a mordant humour that often threatens to break out into uproarious high-spirits. Despite the Breaking Taboos tenor of the book, Derbyshire doesn't seem as if he's out primarily to shock people. Making shocking statements is merely a by-product of what he sees as his central purpose; telling the unvarnished truth about things without any smiley-face concessions to optimism, hope, or wish-fulfillment fantasy. His metaphysics is S-C-I-E-N-C-E (or in human affairs B-I-O-L-O-G-Y) and his prognosis is D-I-S-M-A-L. If you want nuanced positions, humm-ing and ha-ing, equivocating, compromising, and trying to please everybody, look elsewhere. This is not a scholarly work but a full-on statement of a point of view and it will excite polarizing reactions. If you're a Big-Government Liberal, a believer in the perfectibility of Man, religious, prickly on questions of race, a military Hawk, a proponent of Diversity, and/or a supporter of education for the advancement of Mankind, approach with extreme caution.
Which leaves just me and maybe a couple of hundred others.......
