The Meaning of Recognition: New Essays 2001-2005

Clive James is an expatriate Australian who travelled to Britian as a young man and has made a career as a writer and columnist. These are a collection of essays and talks that he has created in the last few years. James combines the ability to be extremely funny with being highly intelligent. Some of the essays are gems and laugh out loud, especially the last. His essays on the television programs West Wing and the Sopranos are both insightfull and a delight to read. The book also reflects James drift to the right. He is a person who sees himself as a social democrat but he is clearly becoming impatient with do goodist leftism or simple ideological positions. The interesting thing is his impression of Australia. James left at a time when a large number of talented people in the arts left thinking Australia a backwater. Now he thinks about it differently. Australia of course has changed in the forty or so years since he left but there is an acknowledgement of the fact that the backwater tag perhaps missed something. That is that Australia is one of the oldest and best functioning democracies around. It has a spirit of egalaterianism which perhaps characterises it. His essays on Britian suggest a gentle decay. London a city with a dreadful subway system strange functionalist white elephants like the Millenium Dome. Compared to this was Sydney at the height of its glory during the olympics. Of course this simply could be a bit of grovelling hoping to push up the Australian sales. Regardless the essays are not only the product of one of the most intelligent cultured minds going around but they are some of the funniest going around as well.