Review: The Road to Character

What a confusing meandering read this is at times, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try as there are some genuinely valuable insights in here.  The premise is quite a simple one, take two versions of ourselves:

• Adam I: our CV e.g., our external accomplishments
• Adam II: Our eulogy i.e., how people will talk about us after our deaths

and decide which you should prioritise the development of. Brooks' thesis is that we've lost sight of Adam II which is essentially about character and should give it higher priority than we currently do.  Each subsequent chapter looks at qualities like Love, Humility, Self-examination, Dignity etc through the lens of an array of historical characters (with a strong tilt towards Anglo-American examples).

By the end I was mostly persuaded by his thesis and found some historical figures more relevant than others (Johnson and Elliot in particular hit the spot).  Others simply didn't work for me at all. The entire chapter on dignity, for example.  A few like the chapter covering Augustine provided a fascinating insight to the religious mind  and how self examination can lead to an amplification of belief and dedication to God.  But that, and the regular mentions of sin throughout meant this was never going to be a home run for this atheist. It is an unashamedly Christian framework which underlies his thinking.

He's on stronger ground when describing how humanity's way of looking at themselves over the last few hundred years has changed.

The last chapter gives some pointers on what to do to build character and this is one of the more frustrating parts of the book as it feels more than a little confused.

Despite all of these problems, I came away feeling my copious notes are not quite up to the job and could imagine myself dipping into this from time to time.


Verdict: A perfect mid-life crisis book: a bit muddled but potential nuggets of inspiration.