Dead White Guys: A Father, His Daughter and the Great Books of the Western World

By Matt Burriesci

Dead White Guys is a timely defense of the great books, arriving in the middle of a national debate about the fate of these books in high schools and universities around the country. Burriesci shows how the great books can enrich our lives as individuals, as citizens, and in our careers. Extending the argument first made by Anna Quinndlen's on the act of reading itself, How Reading Changed My Life," ("It is like the rubbing of two sticks together to make a fire, the act of reading, an improbable pedestrian task that leads to heat and light,) Burriesci reminds us all of the enormous impact reading has on our lives. After his daughter was born prematurely in 2010, Burriesci set out to write a book about 26 Great Books, from Plato to Karl Marx, and how their lessons have applied to his life. As someone who has spent a long and successful career advocating for great literature, Burriesci defends the great books in this series of tender and candid letters, rich in personal experience and full of humor. Matt Burriesci is a national literary leader, serving as Executive Director of both PEN/Faulkner, which bestows the largest peer-juried prize for fiction

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Jun 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781632280268

Reviews for Dead White Guys

[datrappert · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Just how exasperating is this book? Oh my, let me count the ways.First, while it is billed as a defense of the Great Books, it is no such thing. The author is not arguing for the permanency of the thought in these books; rather, he is using the Great Books as starting points or as justification for his own rants. Because that's what this book seems like. It reads as if it were written in one long caffeine-fueled binge where the author finally got everything that is bothering him off his chest. He could just have well used scenes from Harry Potter. This book isn't about the Great Books; it's about its own author.Second, he says he is writing it to his daughter, Violet, to read when she turns 18 in 2028! Again, I contend he is writing it for himself, but if indeed it is for Violet, may she be so lucky that the book is out of print and her father has had to burn his own copies for warmth.Third: Okay, it really isn't ALL that bad. There are times when the author's summaries of Plato, Montaigne, and others are pretty informative. I especially liked his interpretation of Hamlet. There are also a few good axioms, such as "Happiness is a choice, then it is a practice." Other times, it is hard to really understand how it all relates. The author's usual technique is to start with a personal anecdote, about a former boss or former addiction, for instance, throw in some quotes or paraphrases from a Great Book, and deliver a conclusion for Violet's benefit. Often it is much ado about nothing. We get much more insight into the author than we get into any Great Book.Fourth, the book reads as if the editor gave up on it, or as if it never had one. I don't mean grammar; the author writes perfectly readable English and I only spotted a minor typo or two, which seems almost inevitable in any book. What is missing is fact checking. Or maybe reasonability checking. For example:-Adolf Hitler was not "brutally executed" although the others listed by the author were. He also says Saddam Hussein was "promptly" hanged in a public square. Where does he get these ideas? He was executed in a prison after months of trial.-He believes that justice always prevails in the end. Gee, I wish….-He says we annihilated the Native Americans. What we did was bad enough, but we did not annihilate them.-He believes the entire global financial system collapsed; I'm sorry, but it didn't, although it could have without the action Obama took. If he had said "almost" I wouldn't have an argument.-He also says, "And in all these financial crises of the last 25 years-the S&L crisis, the dot-com bubble, the Enron Scandal, and the Great Recession-everyone lost a lot of money, but no wealth was actually destroyed. The truth is, it had never existed. What people lost was the illusion of wealth. That wealth didn't exist, and it had never really existed, because nobody had actually worked for it." Well, I'm sorry Mr. Author, but that is nonsense. Try telling that to the people who worked and received Enron shares as part of their compensation and saw large amounts of their counted-upon retirement savings disappear in the blink of an eye. Or to anyone else who lost their savings or their house during one of these crises. What planet are you living on?-His understand of the economy is seriously wacko, also. While his frustration at capitalism is understandable, the examples he gives are ludicrous. His MegaMaxSuperOffice example, for instance, would certainly NOT own all of its suppliers of pens, pencils, paper, etc. any more than Amazon owns all the suppliers of what it sells. -I could go on…as a reader, you can pick your own examples.Fifth, I hope writing this book made the author feel good. It will help balance out the occasional nausea I got from reading it. I do appreciate how having a daughter can change your life. It changed mine as well. It just didn't make me spout off at the mouth so much.