The Optimist: One Man’s Search for the Brighter Side of Life by Laurence Shorter
Canongate, £10.99
LAURENCE SHORTER is a 30-something jack-of-several-trades still living with his father and wondering what to do with his life. One morning he wakes up more acutely aware than usual that the world is a depressing place where corporate failure, climate change and cancer seem the order of the day.
He resolves to find inner happiness by searching for the JBF – the Jump out of Bed Factor – and to make a career out of being an optimist. And to write a book about it. This is that book. Though it is difficult to pigeonhole exactly what sort of a book this is; part sitcom, part self-help, part pop psychology and part gentle philosophy. But mostly it’s a book about writing a book.
It seems to be a new fad in publishing. I read a book recently by a bloke who decided to go for a walk, and that was it really. To make the walk worth writing about he followed in the footsteps of some random historical figures. It turned out to be hugely entertaining.
Laurence prefers to travel by plane. There are trips to Paris and South
Africa – where the chapter on grilling Desmond Tutu about optimism has elements of the most unlikely but wonderful farce – to New York and California, and an angst ridden journey through India. All the while he seeks an audience with Bill Clinton, imagining the maestro of politics to be also a master of optimism.
He bumps into Harold Pinter, David Cameron, Mick Jagger, a surfing rabbi and all manner of wackos and weirdos who, when not being impossibly wacky or weird, are rather endearing. And, as Laurence invariably discovers, they are worth listening to. There is a lot of wisdom within these pages, but there were moments when I wanted the author to pause for longer so the reader could reflect on it.
A meeting with the founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, had me reaching for one of his books. Seligman has a simple test for optimism. If something bad happens to you do you take it personally, expect it to last forever, and let it affect other areas of your life? If you do, you’re a pessimist.
What makes The Optimist a page-turner is that you end up caring about Laurence. Will he settle down with his wayward, New Age, basket-case of a girlfriend? Will he ever find enlightenment? Will he manage to be optimistic? And will he ever meet Bill Clinton? I won’t spoil the story by telling you.
I did wonder how a guy who started out with no job to speak of found the money to fly off to some of the world’s most exotic locations for weeks on end. But then maybe there are handsome advances to be had these days for writing a book about writing a book.
Nigel Nelson
