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A review by lucasmiller
The Chairs Are Where the People Go: How to Live, Work, and Play in the City by Sheila Heti, Misha Glouberman
3.0
I didn't read this book in a single sitting. It has sat on my shelf about half read for over a year. I picked it up again yesterday, and thought I'd read a few pages. After reading about 50 pages, I figured I should go ahead and get down to the end.
I spent about 15 minutes before reading the last 25 pages reading 2 star Goodreads' reviews of this book. I share some of the main frustrations with the book that the majority of these reviews express, but I think they tend to be overstated. The whole twee, adorkable complaint seems mean-spirited and exaggerated. The earnestness of the book can be cloying, but I think it is genuine.
I'm interested in the aspects of conflict resolution and negotiation that the author deals with. I believe connecting negotiation to games, improvisation, and conferences is smart and interesting. Often the chapters would drift and end right as I was starting to become interested.
There is a unthinking belief in analytical, quantitative facts that is something that I have developed as a personal pet peeve. I'm all for the scientific method and facts, but when facts and science are treated self evidently true and unquestionable they become the exact same type of superstition that the author is decrying.
I really believe the conversations between Misha Glouberman and Shelia Heti were better than the essays they produced.
My job assigns a book for all of the employees and teachers to read over the summer. During workshops in early August after a few hours of meetings and a surprisingly good lunch buffet everyone gets into randomly assigned groups and have to talk about the book at hand. I've only done this twice, and the first book was atrocious self-help pop psychology of which I read the first chapter and politely deferred to the other members of my group. The second book had extended musings on the legacy of Kant and most of my group complained about how the book was too difficult to read over summer vacation. I think that this book, or perhaps the five star version of this book (I do not claim to know how to make it better, I liked it, but it felt slight) would be perfectly in between those two poles. Maybe I'll force this slim volume on a colleague. We can wear suits and not smoke, and shout in an empty auditorium.
I spent about 15 minutes before reading the last 25 pages reading 2 star Goodreads' reviews of this book. I share some of the main frustrations with the book that the majority of these reviews express, but I think they tend to be overstated. The whole twee, adorkable complaint seems mean-spirited and exaggerated. The earnestness of the book can be cloying, but I think it is genuine.
I'm interested in the aspects of conflict resolution and negotiation that the author deals with. I believe connecting negotiation to games, improvisation, and conferences is smart and interesting. Often the chapters would drift and end right as I was starting to become interested.
There is a unthinking belief in analytical, quantitative facts that is something that I have developed as a personal pet peeve. I'm all for the scientific method and facts, but when facts and science are treated self evidently true and unquestionable they become the exact same type of superstition that the author is decrying.
I really believe the conversations between Misha Glouberman and Shelia Heti were better than the essays they produced.
My job assigns a book for all of the employees and teachers to read over the summer. During workshops in early August after a few hours of meetings and a surprisingly good lunch buffet everyone gets into randomly assigned groups and have to talk about the book at hand. I've only done this twice, and the first book was atrocious self-help pop psychology of which I read the first chapter and politely deferred to the other members of my group. The second book had extended musings on the legacy of Kant and most of my group complained about how the book was too difficult to read over summer vacation. I think that this book, or perhaps the five star version of this book (I do not claim to know how to make it better, I liked it, but it felt slight) would be perfectly in between those two poles. Maybe I'll force this slim volume on a colleague. We can wear suits and not smoke, and shout in an empty auditorium.