This book is a non-fiction about the world in the current times. Elif Shafak has beautifully captured its flaws and shortcomings. I love to watch her videos, ‘Say your Word’. After having read this book, the word that comes to my mind is ‘Bridge.’ We might now visualise the London Bridge or the Golden gate Bridge. We can associate the word with the phrase ‘bridge the gap.’ Gaps in our understanding, gaps in our relationships, gaps in our knowledge, etc. this book is about bridging all these gaps. A small yet insightful self-help book. She has dealt with so many situations with great aplomb.
A very interesting story was about how she was forcibly made to write with her right hand when she was left-handed. I felt very bad because why undo what a person naturally is!
The chapters on Anger, Anxiety, and Apathy are very interesting and reflective. She talks about channelizing our anger for more productive missions.
Another chapter brilliantly discusses information, knowledge, and wisdom. How we are inundated by information overload and how we need to sieve through it and acquire accurate knowledge and get wiser.
Although surrounded by virtual people online, how people feel lonely. The feeling of being disconnected although we are in a linked network. How people need to listen to others and learn. She writes about accepting diversity and accepting people for who they are.
The part about narcissism, narcissistic existence, and group narcissism was very interesting.
Often people leave their own country (by birth) in search of better jobs and often settle down in that country, but people tend to have a lost feeling, a feeling of not belonging. But the author lived in so many countries and finally settled in the UK. What do you call such a person - a global citizen, a citizen of the world?
A quote that is close to my heart is “Stories brings us together; untold stories keep us apart”
I would have loved to have a teacher like @shafakelif, who is a great storyteller and makes every solution positive and heart-warming, although it might deal with difficult or heartrending problems.
In a world where there are people who look down upon you if they have a big degree and you don’t or are millionaires and you aren’t, they are of a higher class and you aren’t, they are fair complexioned, and you aren’t, they are from a different clan, they are a tight knit group, etc., this book makes us aware about much more.
It is an optimistic, powerful, discernment of the contemporary world. I am enamoured by any book Elif Shafak writes and I am sure everybody would get enlightened, reading this book!