The World As I Found It

Rating:
Summary: A remarkable read
Review: Duffy creates a fictional biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein, George Moore, & Bertrand Russell. While it sounds potentially dry, the storytelling is magnificent and leaves you feeling as though you've had some small contact with these brilliant characters. The emphasis on food is an odd characteristic, but very vivid. Dinner-table-talk plays a large role in spinning out the plot. While Duffy does not go into detail about the work of these three philosophers, there are references and remarks to fulfill any fan's expectations.

Rating:
Summary: great find
Review: I bought this book in 1988. It then got buried under tons of other books until I unearthed it this weekend. What a great find. Rich characters, engaging prose...a thoroughly satisfying read. At 500+ pages, I'll admit it's a bit overwritten, but once you get going it's difficult to put down. Ranks up there with "In the Memory of the Forest" as gripping and memorable. Go work out really hard, take a hot shower, then grab an herbal tea and melt into its pages.

Rating:
Summary: forging flesh and blood out of the artifacts of history
Review: I certainly wasn't hampered in my enjoyment of this book by a lack of familiarity with (or, until now, interest in) twentieth-century philosophy. "The World as I Found It" taught me what makes a great fictional characters: such compassion and detail that I feel I know them as I know myself. Duffy's Wittgenstein, Russell, and Moore are forged from such different materials and live such different lives. But their struggles and motivations are painted in such rich detail that I intimately recognized the humanity in each of them. Great writing.

Rating:
Summary: great find
Review: I certainly wasn't hampered in my enjoyment of this book by a lack of familiarity with (or, until now, interest in) twentieth-century philosophy. "The World as I Found It" taught me what makes a great fictional characters: such compassion and detail that I feel I know them as I know myself. Duffy's Wittgenstein, Russell, and Moore are forged from such different materials and live such different lives. But their struggles and motivations are painted in such rich detail that I intimately recognized the humanity in each of them. Great writing.

Rating:
Summary: a bridge between real life and academic philosophy
Review: I have had no interest in literary interpretations of the world until I read this book. Here I found other lives struggling with the same staleness of mathematics and logic and their implications that I could not escape. I found lives exemplifying the difficulties of pitting one's factual evidence against human assumptions. I found, that is, that my own life is not so different as it's felt.

Well done, Duffy.

Rating:
Summary: one of the best books I've ever read
Review: It's hard to believe that a book about a small group of philosophers could be so funny and beautiful. I'm thrilled it's back in print; I read it years ago and it's almost ruined me for other books. Read it!

Rating:
Summary: Vivid and believable.
Review: Outstanding. Given the premise-opaque Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's life adventures, I feared this would be dry as dust. Happily this is first and foremost splendid story telling. Wittgentein's career at Cambridge, his relationships with Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore, his wartime experiences in WW1 and after are rendered beautifully. Indeed his Vienna boyhood, growing up privileged yet emotionally bereft, is chillingly described. The characters are so perfectly drawn one can't help but be pulled into a wonderfully imagined world.

Also interesting is the ongoing description of the conflict of "philosophy" versus everyday living. Philosophers are human beings first and foremost and life events, circumstances and other people conspire together to thwart the life of the mind. It is interesting to read the compromises, adaptations and concessions the characters must make in order to bring their philosophies into actual daily existence. Occasionally successful, often not, the struggles depicted are so genuine and believable that one can't help but moved by their efforts, painful though they often are.

Rating:
Summary: one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read
Review: Similar to A.S. Byatt's "Possession" in feel, this book is beautifully written, with passages that resonate and demand re-reading. I read it years ago, but it is one of those books which floats back into my mind with great regularity.