This is one of Joseph Epsteins earlier books, which makes some of its commentary out of date (hardcover edition, 1980). The grand subject of ambition has changed quite a bit over the past twenty years, and the contemporary reader may find Mr. Epsteins insights, though comprehensive in scope, behind the times. Although Epsteins historical anecdotes can be witty and original, the way in which he approaches the general subject of ambition unfortunately raises more questions than answers. If you are hoping for some meaningful self-help guidance from this volume, prepare to be both disappointed and further bewildered. (And if you are socialist--which I am not, incidentally--prepare to be insulted.) The first chapters of the book lack a satisfactory pace, but it picks up during the second half. Epsteins take on the world of high American Society in the chapter on Edith Wharton is especially entertaining, and reads a lot like his current book, "Snobbery: The American Version." The subsequent chapter on F. Scott Fitzgerald, failure, and intergenerational downshifting is downright depressing. One detects a sharp note of disapproval from Epstein towards people who seek to simplify their lives by setting their career goals with modesty. Were he to write this chapter during the current epidemic of corporate scandal and societal Affluenza, I wonder if he would reach the same conclusions. The final chapter on Wallace Stevens extolls the virtues of a bourgeois man driven by immediate career satisfaction, but who still supplied time for poetry on the side. I was surprised to see Epstein write so glowingly about what seems to me as the dullest representative of ambition mentioned in his book. In the end, the reader is left with a short epilogue that, again, fails to make much sense of the myriad of open questions that surface when contemplating the role of ambition in ones life. Epsteins buried thesis, that ambition does not deserve the scorn it often receives, just doesnt provide enough specifics about the degree and nature of todays laudable goals to be of any real use. As disagreeable as I found this book, I stuck through its 300 pages to discover only a handful of noteworthy passages. The scattered gems within the books pages are worth reading, but as for the vast remainder, just skim it. You can find better examples of the authors writing in his articles in "The New Yorker" and "Commentary."
