Entertainment

We get old and what is erased? If that is the philosophical question to be explored in this sweeping work (no pun intended), then Ivan Klima answers it. It is difficult to fall in love with “Love and Garbage.” The title alone feels like the author is intent on destroying love the same way one would toss garbage into a incinerator to watch it explode. The narrative covers the protagonist’s childhood through to his adulthood—he is a great literary writer reduced to being a street sweeper by the Czech Communist regime that censors his work. 

David Brooks explores a richly textured landscape far beyond the usual scope of his Sunday NYT oped piece. “When I was young, I wanted to be knowledgeable, but as I got older, I wanted to be wise,” he states. Brooks is not alone in his quest seeking wisdom. There is a great need to see a person for who he or she really is inasmuch as there is a deeply heartfelt desire to be loved for who we really are.