The Age of Absurdity

ebook Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy

By Michael Foley

cover image of The Age of Absurdity

Sign up to save your library

With an OverDrive account, you can save your favorite libraries for at-a-glance information about availability. Find out more about OverDrive accounts.

   Not today

Find this title in Libby, the library reading app by OverDrive.

Download Libby on the App Store Download Libby on Google Play

Search for a digital library with this title

Title found at these libraries:

Loading...
Like Alain de Botton crossed with Charlie Brooker, Foley succeeds in educating and enlightening us in this wry take on the existential dilemmas of modern life.
'Fascinating . . . the quest for happiness and how we are getting it all wrong' Jeremy Vine, Sunday Telegraph

The good news is that the great thinkers from history have proposed the same strategies for happiness and fulfilment. The bad news is that these turn out to be the very things most discouraged by contemporary culture. This knotty dilemma is the subject of The Age of Absurdity – a humourous and accessible investigation into how the desirable states of wellbeing and satisfaction are constantly undermined by modern life.
Michael Foley examines the elusive conditions of happiness common to philosophy, spiritual teachings and contemporary psychology, then shows how these are becoming increasingly difficult to apply in a world of high expectations. The common challenges of earning a living, maintaining a relationship and ageing are becoming battlegrounds of existential angst and self-loathing in a culture that demands conspicuous consumption, high-octane partnerships and perpetual youth.
Rather than denouncing and rejecting these challenges, Foley presents an entertaining strategy of not just accepting but embracing today's world – finding happiness in its absurdity.
The Age of Absurdity