By B. J. COMAN [Quadrant] – We live longer, suffer less, and have more leisure time, more freedom, and so on. A great number of us—perhaps the majority—simply follow what has been memorably called (by William James) “the gospel of relaxation”. And yet, there is an indefinable unease at the heart of it all.

There may be no knock-down argument to counter that peculiar mix of arrogance and optimism that characterises our age. But those who think as I do are not wholly without a defence, and now and again a commentator comes along whose analysis of modernity considerably strengthens our convictions. Such a person is Marilynne Robinson, a current American writer who is not well known in Australia. Her novel Gilead
won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 and an earlier book, House-keeping, won a PEN/Hemingway Award in 1980.

But for my money, her most impressive early achievement was to write a controversial work of non-fiction about nuclear pollution in Britain which had the singular distinction of upsetting both the British government and Greenpeace at the same time. The latter organisation successfully applied to have the book banned in the UK. I have not read the book in question (The Mother Country) and, thus, cannot comment on the veracity of her claims. A review of the book in New Scientist passed her off as something of an uninformed ratbag. Still, when long-standing enemies combine in this way, I do start to wonder.

Continued at Quadrant | More Chronicle & Notices.