This new collection of essays by the author of Life at the Bottom bears
the unmistakable stamp of Theodore Dalrymple's bracingly clearsighted
view of the human condition. In these pieces, Dr. Dalrymple ranges over
literature and ideas, from Shakespeare to Marx, from the breakdown of
Islam to the legalization of drugs. Here is a book that restores our
faith in the central importance of literature and criticism to our
civilization. Theodore Dalrymple is the best doctor-writer since William
Carlos Williams. --Peggy Noonan. Includes When Islam Breaks Down, named
the best journal article of 2004 by David Brooks of the New York Times.