In these essays—dealing variously with illness and disability, writing and reading, liberty and apathy, distrust and expertise, Raymond Aron and liberalism, love and grief, and, not least, a beloved cat—Jake Goldsmith demonstrates the radical honesty at the root of philosophy.
Jake Goldsmith is the founder of The Barbellion Prize, a book prize dedicated to the furtherance of ill and disabled voices in writing, and author of the philosophical memoir Neither Weak Nor Obtuse.
Illustrated by Wend Rend.
Notices
“An angry young man who has a right to be so, Jake Goldsmith is frequently wise beyond his years. This powerful book should be made required reading for the chronically ill and the chronically healthy in the school of life.”
—P.J. Blumenthal, author of Winston Hewlett’s Impotence
“Ten powerful essays by a young author of exceptional integrity, courage and honesty. Jake Goldsmith, physically frail and mentally acute, has a keen, often ferocious intellect that offers an unblinking scrutiny of the human condition from a perspective of chronic illness. The final essay, a eulogy for a beloved, much-missed cat, becomes a metaphysical reflection on the impact of loss, the meaning of life and death and well … everything else.”
—David Collard, author of Multiple Joyce
“This is the sound of honest thinking in extremis.”
—Ray Davis, pseudopodium.org
“Jake Goldsmith has gifted us with another epic. In this insightful collection of essays, Goldsmith shares his thoughts on ableism in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, toxic social media trends, and his deceased (possibly murdered) cat, Lemons. In all cases, he applies his knowledge of philosophy and his unusual perspective to offer readers a unique take on global events…. Wend Rend’s black-and-white drawings, often done in caricature style, perfectly compliment the text…. Goldsmith’s book thereby showcases the works of two gifted and insightful disabled artists (Goldsmith and Rend). It is a very fitting offering from the creator of the Barbellion Prize.”
—Kate Champlin, in WordGathering
Jake Goldsmith is a writer with cystic fibrosis and the founder of The Barbellion Prize, a book prize for ill and disabled authors.