What Not to Say

Oh, do I like British writers: William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Helen Felding, and the list continues. Sometimes I don’t even realize an author’s British until I’ve begun a book, which is the case with Mark Vernon’s What Not to Say, which I picked up from the library expecting a light and silly read. With a bright colored-pencil stylized cover design and lots of scribbling, plus the description of awkward moments on the back, it is easy to assume. However, the subtitle, Philosophy for Life’s Tricky Moments, is in earnest.

So, ever want to know what to say to end a friendship? Carefully, advises Vernon after extensively considering Nietzsche and Plato. And why do you want children? Hm, maybe one question worth asking before giving it a go. He even advises you on a particularly clever poem to recite when a friend enters into an ill-matched or disappointing marriage, giving you, at last, something to say.

As with most British thinking, Vernon advises a great deal of tact when addressing one’s public and private moments. Very nicely, though, he always does advise one to speak and engage, often falling back on the less is more strategy, but with a punch. I particularly appreciate his treatise on making a complaint. Here the wit of a Brit can be absolutely delicious! If one’s wit is not quite as sharp, no matter, the point remains that one should articulate against injustices. If others are angry over silly things, let not that dissuade me from my rage of importance!

Vernon’s erudition is a pleasure as he leads one through ancient, modern, and otherwise texts and philosophers, distilling contemporary situations, thereby supporting, even with his own biblical references, that there is nothing new under the sun.