Kiss & Tell - Alain De Botton

Mr. Rogers had escaped his wife's complexity with interest in the peripherals of existence. He could entertain a conversation of many hours' duration on the second downward clue fo the The Times crossword, the migration of African birds, the effect of carbon dioxide on the synapses of the brain, not to mention the pros and cons of buying a water purifier or the gradual supersession of the sewn bookbinding by its glued counterpart - but remained at a loss to understand the role allotted to him in the family drama.

Everything one said threw him into deep thought, whereby he would roll back his eyes, lift up his head and enter into a phrase of saying 'Yes' in rapid succession though the comment which had elicited this might have been no greater than, 'It's getting harder to find red apples these days.'

This book is original, funny, and well-written--but it doesn't add up to a good read. Dissecting the biography genre, de Botton selects an ordinary person's life to display in this book. With of interest about the person, the gist of the book becomes a dissertation on structure and style of most biographies. There are some great moments and interesting thoughts in the book, but it too often digresses into details that are modestly interesting and briefly amusing. Apparently, a lot of readers seem to like this book, but for me a short story would have been adequate.