April 2006 | Conscious Culture
Book Reviews
THE WAY OF IGNORANCE, and Other Essays, by Wendell Berry (Shoemaker Hoard $24). To many in this country, Wendell Berry is a hero. He is a spokesman for intact families, strong community ties and preservation of our land. As the Kentucky writer/farmer/pacifist once wrote, “Common work, common suffering, and a common willingness to join and belong are the conditions upon which speech is possible in [the] ‘dumb abyss’ in which we are divided.” He has consistently spoken out about the importance of work, of marriage, of community, of friendship, and of conservation.
In The Way of Ignorance, these themes reappear. Many are philosophical essays, but a few are more clearly narrative, such as the portrait of Charlie Fisher, a logger who still prefers to use draft horses in lieu of an expensive skidder. Although the tone of many of these essays is somewhat pessimistic, even hopeless, Berry still holds some optimism for our collective futures. “We now have hundreds of large and small organizations devoted to protecting or saving things of value that are endangered: peace, kindness, freedom, childhood, health, wilderness areas. … More and more, as I tell over our lengthening catalog of calamities and discouragements, I think of these organizations. I think of them with great sympathy, and with love, for I think they are the basis of our worldly hope.”
The author of many volumes of poems, essays and novels, Berry practices what he preaches. He still types his manuscripts on a typewriter and refuses to shop at Wal-Mart. He remains married to his only wife and still lives in the same community.
(Deborah Straw)
GOD WEARS LIPSTICK, by Karen Berg (Kaballah Centre International, $17.95). There is no getting around it. This book has a catchy title and clever cover design that is hard to ignore. Author Karen Berg and her husband Rav Berg are equally hard to overlook as they have built an international network of more than 50 Kaballah Centre locations. The whole movement of studying the Kabbalah has its critics. One reason is the conservative Jewish stand that only Jewish men over 40 should learn it. Another point of contention is that the Bergs have invited more than a few celebrities into their circle.
For her part, Berg writes this book is “the first Kabbalistic Bible for women, to help you become aware that you don’t have to be a 40-year-old man—and a Talmud scholar to boot—to learn Kaballah.”
The Bergs and Kaballah Centre have been adept at marketing and branding, no one disputes that fact. This book exemplifies more of the same. Berg has brief, conversational chapters with titles such as “The Light Bulb Principle,” “Guilt is a Four-Letter Word,” “Be Happy or Else” and “What Your Therapist is Too Well Paid to Tell You.”
The second part of the book covers what Berg calls “Kabbalistic tools” for, among others, sharing, effort, astrology, listening, conflict, honesty, tolerance, parenting, friendship, sex and, in the final chapter, prayer. This format makes the book easy to skim and sample, which one can imagine is what Berg has in mind. (Andrew Mulholland)
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