Work by James Suzman

I just finished reading Work by James Suzman.  414 pages.  It was a good read.  Yet, you should know the title of this book has nothing, well basically nothing, to do with what is in the book.  This is more of history of hunter-gatherers and foragers.  That then stumbles its way into the industrial revolution by smacking into the 1800’s.  Then makes a couple of weird leaps to get to the 1900’s. Then trips into the present once it remembered the subtitle was “A deep history, from the stone age to the age of robots”.

This book is interesting and written well.  There is some great information about the history of us.  Though, around page 100 it was getting confusing as to where this book was going.  Page 150 it would have been dropped if not for the book club it is being read for.  Page 199 you start to think, “okay so around page 200 we start moving into the more modern areas of work”. 

Page 201, you give up on reading this book because it is about work.  You start to enjoy a book that’s interesting and about hunger-gatherers. Also, the weird focus Mr. Suzman has on the Ju/’Hoansi Bushmen.  So much so, this could have just been called a history of the Ju/’Hoansi and left it at that.  It would have been a smaller, more focused book.

The problem is not the content, but the title.  Or visa versa.  The two just do not match up and that throws you when reading it to learn about the history of work.  If you were to pull the parts out that focused on our work for the past 75,000 plus years, you could have shortened this book by over 200 pages to focus on that.

In the end Mr. Suzman makes the argument this book was a writing on working less.  Yes?  Not the connection you would draw, I think, on having read it, but having him say it draws the point home (414 pages).  Which makes it feel like it could have been third book focused on why we should be working less.  There was a lot to unpack in this book.

I would not say do not read this book.  It was a good read, if you let go of the title and what this book is sold as.  Also, I would say, do not read it if there is something you have on your shelf you are looking forward to.  If you need something to read, this is worth your time. If you have something.  Do not bother with it.

With all that said and referencing the interesting points, there were pieces that have inspired a couple of blog or podcast points.  So, those may be seen in the future.

Posted. Not Perfect.

A Vegan Father, navigating a non-vegan world.