Reaching for Utopia: Making Sense of An Age of Upheaval by Jason Cowley

Reaching for Utopia: Making Sense of An Age of Upheaval by Jason Cowley

Reaching for Utopia brings together insightful essays and profiles chronicling the remarkable political and cultural transformations of the last decade from the fall of Blair to the rise of Corbyn and Brexit. He has met and interviewed all the major political players shaping and changing the way we live today.

The subtitle for this collection of essays, profiles and interviews by New Statesman editor Jason Cowley is “making sense of an age of upheaval” and largely he succeedsThe section on politics and power is fascinating. Cowley is determined to understand antagonists, to explain the dominant individuals shaping our era. The likes of Arsène Wenger, Tiger Woods, Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan are explored in the Lives and Letters collection, too, making for a well-rounded collection by a thoughtful and engaging writer.

-- Ben East * The Observer *

A distinctly superior book … Cowley's thoughtful style is a pleasure to read. He has proved himself the rightful heir of the great Victorians.

-- Simon Heffer * The Telegraph *

These finely woven and open-minded essays have a dark stream trickling through them: of loss, chances missed, past success fading and no longer giving solace. This elegiac strain of regret, disappointment and intimations of mortality is invoked by, or attributed to, most of the public men and women profiled by Jason Cowley in Reaching for Utopia.

-- John Lloyd * Financial Times *

In their uncertain but foreboding style, the Jesus and Mary Chain once sang of how heaven is too close to hell. It’s not entirely clear what they were inferring, but it remains an intriguing image. A reading of Jason Cowley’s artful new book might lead us to conclude that utopia and dystopia share a similarly close proximity. Strive for the former and you may well end in the latter. Amongst a range of issues covered in this collection of profiles and essays, it is the unyielding pursuit of an unachievable utopia, an overstretching for something better, that is set as the frame. It is here that some understanding of our present malaise might be found in the fragments of recent history.

-- David Beer * Berfrois *

The strength of this outstanding essay collection lies in Cowley’s access to the key players in British politics, his considerable powers of social and political analysis and his excellent prose style.

-- David Patrikarakos * Prospect Magazine *

Jason Cowley is an English journalist, magazine editor and writer. After working at the New Statesman, he became the editor of Granta in September 2007, while also remaining a writer on The Observer. He returned to the New Statesman as its editor in September 2008.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781784631529
ISBN 10	1784631523
Title	Reaching for Utopia: Making Sense of An Age of Upheaval
Author	Jason Cowley
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Salt Publishing
Year published	2018-09-01
Number of pages	320
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.