{"product_id":"how-literature-saved-my-life-book-david-shields-9780345802729","title":"How Literature Saved My Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this wonderfully intelligent, stunningly honest, and painfully funny book, acclaimed writer David Shields uses himself as a representative for all readers and writers who seek to find salvation in literature. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBlending confessional criticism and anthropological autobiography, Shields explores the power of literature (from Blaise Pascal's \u003ci\u003ePenses\u003c\/i\u003e to Maggie Nelson's \u003ci\u003eBluets\u003c\/i\u003e, Renata Adler's \u003ci\u003eSpeedboat\u003c\/i\u003e to Proust's \u003ci\u003eA Remembrance of Things Past\u003c\/i\u003e) to make life survivable, maybe even endurable. Shields evokes his deeply divided personality (his ridiculous ambivalence), his character flaws, his woes, his serious despairs. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBooks are his life, but when they come to feel unlifelike and archaic, he revels in a new kind of art that is based heavily on quotation and consciousness and self-consciousness - perfect, since so much of what ails him is acute self-consciousness. And he shares with us a final irony: he wants literature to assuage human loneliness, but nothing can assuage human loneliness. Literature doesn't lie about this - which is what makes it essential. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50327617110289,"sku":"CIN0345802721G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51001190383889,"sku":"NIN9780345802729","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53448036188433,"sku":"GOR010137950","price":21.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53450894999825,"sku":"GOR011288553","price":13.74,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0345802721.jpg?v=1786111945","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/products\/how-literature-saved-my-life-book-david-shields-9780345802729","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}