Help: The Original Human Dilemma

by Garret Keizer

It is the primal cry, the first word in a want ad, the last word on the toolbar of a computer screen. A song by the Beatles, a prayer to the gods, the reason Uncle Sam is pointing at you. What we get by with a little of, what we could use a bit more of, what we were only trying to do when we were so grievously misunderstood. What we'll be perfectly fine without, thank you very much. It makes us human. It can make us suffer. It can make us insufferable. It can make all the difference in the world. It can fall short. In Help , Garret Keizer raises the questions we ask every day and in every relationship that matters to us. What does it mean to help? When does our help amount to hindrance? When are we getting less help -- or more -- than we actually want? When are we kidding ourselves in the name of helping someone else? Drawing from history, literature, firsthand interviews, and personal anecdotes, Help invites us to ponder what is at stake whenever one human being tries to assist another. From the biblical Good Samaritan to present-day humanitarians, from heroic sacrifices in times of political oppression to nagging dilemmas in times of ordinary stress, Garret Keizer takes us on a journey that is at once far-ranging and never far from where we live. He reminds us that in our perpetual need for help, and in our frequent perplexities over how and when to give it, we are not alone.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Garret Keizer is the author of eight books, the most recent of which are Getting Schooled and Privacy. A contributing editor of Harper's Magazine and a Guggenheim Fellow, he has written for Lapham's Quarterly, the Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other publications.

You can learn more about Keizer's work and also contact him at his website:

http://www.garretkeizer.com

The website of his current publisher is here:

http://us.macmillan.com/author/garret...

Reviews

[PBurmeister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garret Keizer's book on help is not easy, so the hurried reader expecting an easy book, on any level, may be disappointed. And Keizer's book on help is complicated, so the reader expecting to patiently follow its twists and turns will be rewarded. I recommend it to the mature reader who is struggling with real questions about how to be of help in a cruel world. I appreciate Keizer's humility, found in his summation (pp 237-238) and throughout. Indeed, "while the requirement or obligation to be helpful is clear, the daily application of help is often anything but clear." (paraphrased) These applications and their possible meanings are the territory Keizer navigates . . . without ever insisting that the reader agree with him?

[Alan Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book. I found it on a remainders table for $5. I have never heard of the author but I will look for more of his work. He has a refreshing style and very thoughtful honest approach to a complex issue. When am I helping? Who am I helping? it is one thing to love my neighbour but what if my neighbour's behaviour is jeopardisng the neighbourhood?
He tells the moving story of the people in the village of Le Chambon who housed Jewish refugees and the story of Norman Mailers attempts to support a paroled killer.There was so much to think about as i read it.
half way through I was going to give it 5 stars but I feel he lost his way a bit in the second half of the book.
Heaps of sermon material in this one.

[Jendi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this unique book when I first read it in 2006. Keizer delves deep into the complexity of our obligations to someone who can't be, or doesn't want to be, helped effectively. He's to be commended for taking on the topic at all, when so many preachers merely moralize about it in a simplistic way.

However, upon rereading, I became frustrated by his constant self-doubt and backtracking, and his refusal to commit to any rule of thumb about discerning proper boundaries. Perhaps it's because in the intervening years I have found some theories within feminism and psychology that illuminate the chaos of obligations I once perceived. This time around, the book left me with many good stories to ponder, but not much clarity.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thus far this is the most interesting point(i am going to poorly summarize in true deb fashion):

The humans that helped holocaust survivors survive by hiding them etc. committed to this heroic deed and sacrificial way of life for many years, some for the whole duration of the holocaust!

Jesus's "career" is agreed to have lasted 3 years.


This is me here:

And yet we continue to ask, what would Jesus do?

[Rustam]

I recently read a couple essays by this guy: one on gun control and one on his thoughts of the Iraq war and current administration. He strikes me as a modern day Ralph Waldo Emerson. His essay about the nature of the current Iraq-war/occupation was striking, intelligent, even-handed and radical in a way that I don't think is really understood by today's manifestation of what is called "liberal". I'm excited to read more of his writing.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keizer, a former teacher and pastor, puzzles out some of the problems in what seems like a simple human impulse. Who do we help? Why do we help them? What costs does help have? Keizer riffs on what we (including, always, himself) as individuals and as a society are doing right--far too little--and what we're doing wrong. Indispensable, all the more so as there is something here for everyone to disagree with.

[Garrett Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the first few pages I was drawn into Keizer's writing and was intriuged by what he was going to say about helping, how to help, who to help, why to help, whatever he may discuss. I found his writing to be fairly accurate without giving definitives for answers which is how I feel most of the world is anyways.

[Gerry LaFemina · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's amazing about this book is the wealth of various examples (historical, literary, anecdotal, personal, political, spiritual) of help that Keizer examines. He's unflinching at how he talks about the weakness found in desire to help others, and the strength we find in it as well. With humor and intelligence and grace, Keizer explores what it means to help others...

[Haven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garret Keizer is brilliant.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A necessary book. Such a shame: it starts strong then gets hopelessly bogged down by cuteness and digressions.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lot of thoughts.Indeed, a great writer.