Enjoyable, as his other books were.
I like the way De Botton mixes up philosophy, sociology, art, literature and history to give insight in a problem, and shed light on its solutions. Also I very much admire the way in which he can explain rather incomprehensible philosophic theories in normal language and finds practical uses for these ideas.

This said, I must admit that I didn't like this as much as the books that I've read before. Partly, because it didn't give me the insights I was looking for. The kind of status he takes as his starting point - the status you get because of money and a splendid career - is not the kind of status that makes me anxious. Also, I missed the humorous twist that I did find in his previous books. And the book ended rather suddenly, without a concluding chapter that brings al the arguments together. I found that a little dissatisfying. ( )

Promising to teach us how to duck the "brutal epithet of 'loser' or 'nobody,' " de Botton notes that status has often been conflated with honour and that the number of men slain while dueling has amounted, over the centuries, to the hundreds of thousands. That conflation is a trap from which de Botton suggests a number of escape routes. We could try philosophy, the "intelligent misanthropy" of Schopenhauer, for who cares what others think if they're all a pack of ninnies anyhow? Art, too, has its consolations, as Marcel found out in Remembrance of Things Past. A novelist such as Jane Austen, with her little painted squares of ivory, can reimagine the world we live in so that we see fully how virtue is actually "distributed without regard to material wealth." De Botton also discusses bohemia, the reaction to status and the attack on bourgeois values, wisely linking this movement to dadaism, whose founder, Tristan Tzara, called for the "idiotic." The phenomenon known as "keeping up with the Joneses" is nothing new, and not much has changed in the 45 years since the late Vance Packard, in The Status Seekers, wrote the definitive analysis of consumer culture and its discontents.

De Botton is both well-read, and a fluent, enjoyable writer. He's also chosen a subject area I love to read about -- questions of status are so important to the way we actually live our lives, but so frequently swept under the rug because we're all supposed to be the same in egalitarian western societies, aren't we?

We're not, of course, and De Botton acknowledges this from the get-go. He identifies five factors that cause status anxiety -- our need for love; the snobbery of others; socially-constructed expectations about what the good life should provide us; the development of meritocracy as a indicator of one's social worth; and the condition of our being that I think would best be termed 'contingency', although De Botton uses the word 'dependence'. His exploration of these comprises the first third or so of the book.

The remainder sets out five proposed cures for status anxiety: the consolations of philosophy, i.e. learning to think ourselves out of our status dilemmas; using art to help us appreciate and be more content with the beauties of our quotidian lives; manipulating politics to liberate ourselves from ideological binds; becoming a Christian, thereby buying into a worldview that has an entirely different hierarchy of what's important; and lastly becoming a left-bank style bohemian.

As elegant and lively as De Botton's writing may be, his arguments are decidedly uneven. His section on Christianity is especially disappointing, as the essence of the gospel seems to escape him. He maunders on about Christian art and polity, but makes no mentions of Jesus' radical declaration that the first shall be last, and the last first. This defangs the dangerous, scandalous side of the Christian message, and undermines the whole section.

The final section on bohemians is also weak. Yes, there are bohos who put on a good show of being egalitarian, and some who do try earnestly to live without status consciousness. But many such communities end up being dominated by charismatic personalities and petty jealousies -- their status anxiety is simply transmuted into alternative forms.

All criticisms aside, however, this is a worthwhile read. I hope De Botton keeps on with this pop philosophy project; it's good fun and genuinely thought-provoking. ( )

Pros: interesting subject matter; perceptive; fine writing
Cons:lack of theory; lack of references to existing thinking; a very bad ending with a focus on Christianity. ( )

Chatty yet erudite. Chapters on Christianity and Bohemianism were best. ( )