Philosopher, film star, father of 'post truth': the real story of Jacques Derrida
Peter Salmon was born in Australia but now lives in the UK. his first novel, The Coffee Story, was a New Statesman Book of the Year. He has written for the Guardian, the Sydney Review of Books, the New Humanist, as well as Australian TV and radio. He has received Writer’s Awards from the Arts Council of England and the Arts Council of Victoria, Australia. Formerly Centre Director of the John Osborne/The Hurst Arvon Centre (2006-2012), he also teaches creative writing, most recently at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and Liverpool John Moores University.
This is a compulsively readable intellectual biography of Derrida
that teases out his endlessly fascinating thought, even when it is
at its knottiest, with admirable patience and lucidity. Salmon's
book, in vividly transmitting the intellectual excitement of
Derrida's times, reminds the reader that, especially in his
thinking about ethics, he remains a philosopher who is urgently,
politically relevant to our times too.
*Matthew Beaumont, Professor at English at University College,
London*
The life of Jacques Derrida has never been told as elegantly or
engagingly as it is in Peter Salmon's new book. Salmon realises, as
nobody else has until now, how the life and the philosophy are
dialectically braided but never makes the rookie mistake of letting
the former entirely account for the latter. He relates rivetingly
how an Arab Jewish philosopher from the colonised margins of
imperial Europe, who had been thrown out of his Algierian lycée for
being a Jew thanks to Nazi-collaborating Vichy regime laws, came to
perform one of the most impressive takedowns in intellectual
history, namely the deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence
underpinning western thought. In delightfully readable, often
laconic prose, Salmon helped me to understand Derrida as never
before and demonstrated why he is not, as some detractors called
him, the Devil but much more cherishable. A wonderful book
*Stuart Jeffries, author of Grand Hotel Abyss*
A precise intellectual biography ... Salmon's ability to render the
man and the mind behind Derrida's "notoriously difficult" style
accessible make this volume a rich resource for both newcomers to,
and fans of, "one of the great philosophers of this or any age.
*Publishers Weekly*
Today, "postmodernism" has become the go-to explanation across a
range of political opinion for all sorts of contemporary ills. But
what if the philosophers so often blamed for undermining standards
of truth and objectivity were pointing out a problem, rather than
causing it? Peter Salmon's clear-sighted, engaging guide to
Derrida's life and ideas is an excellent way to learn about how one
of the twentieth century's most complex thinkers continues to
influence our world.
*Daniel Trilling, author of Lights in the Distance*
Brilliant ... one of the clearest introductions to 20th-century
continental philosophy available ... [a] scintillating account of
[Derrida's] life and thought
*Prospect magazine*
[Salmon] render[s] Derrida's thought accessible ... he shows how
structuralism soon lost its purchase, as Derrida ... laid waste to
what he saw as its hollow metaphysical certainties.
*The Critic*
Thrilling ... [Salmon] could hardly have written a timelier
reminder that Derrida's 'thinking is a crucial component of any
future philosophy; that his thinking is immediately - always
already - applicable to the world as we find it; and that this
application has political heft'.
*Times Higher Education*
Accessible, provocative and beautifully written
*Progressive Geographies*
Written in clear and effective prose, Salmon's biography provides a
concise account of Derrida's development from his student days in
Algiers to international renown and revilement by looking at the
problems that he was trying to solve.
*The Battleground*
An Event, Perhaps is certainly timely. It appears in an era when,
not for the first time, varieties of critical thought are being
accused of a contradictory array of culture-war crimes and
political upheavals.
*Guardian*
Excellent ... The great merit of Salmon's book is that it is
clearsighted and readable.
*Literary Review*
A rigorous intellectual biography ... [Salmon] succeeds in making
accessible the work of a notoriously difficult writer.
*Irish Times*
In An Event, Perhaps, Derrida's intellectual development is
adroitly unpacked by Peter Salmon without bamboozling the reader or
peddling dime-store psychologizing.
*PopMatters*
Excellent
*Five Books*
One of the best books I've read in years
*James E. Faulconer*
Rigorous and revelatory ... Salmon's lucid exposition will be
indispensable to anyone who wants to understand Derrida's key ideas
... a triumph
*John Gray*
Brief, well-written and rather moving.Salmon guides us . with
clarity, wit and self-deprecating humour
*New Humanist*
An Event, Perhaps is not just a welcome addition to the literature
on Derrida, but a hugely significant one ... a generous and learned
intellectual achievement.
*Inscriptions*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
