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  • The American Scholar

    Touché-ing the Void

    Sep 01, 2021 4 minutes
    Review by John Kaag

    THE SWEET SPOT: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning

    BY PAUL BLOOM

    Ecco, 304 pp., $27.99

    ON THE TITLE PAGE of Paul Bloom’s new book, a thumbnail figure climbs toward the top right corner, pushing an enormous boulder that threatens to crush him. This is Sisyphus, the ancient Greek personification of suffering, condemned to roll his rock in endless repetition—and the paradoxical hero of Bloom’s Bloom has crafted a motivational book for those who generally hate motivational books. Its appeal? deals head-on with the most serious of philosophical questions: How can humans live a meaningful life not only in the face of suffering but also by virtue of it? Bloom counsels another route by observing that suffering has untold virtues.

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