The Empty Promise of Good Intentions
Even when motives are pure, altruism is too often insufficient: Your weekly guide to the best in books
Striving to be a good person can be challenging—and there are so many ways to do it badly. In her third novel, , Eleanor Catton follows in New Zealand. As Lily Meyer writes, Catton uses this collective’s not-always-pure pursuits to “poke, quite hard, at the dreams and pieties of people who believe they can change the world.” Many of Jonathan Franzen’s characters also believe they have a higher calling, but their antics can emphasize their flaws: In her , Becca Rothfeld calls Russ Hildebrandt, the father at
