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Philosophy Made Simple
Rudy Harrington is ready for a new life. His daughters are grown, his wife has died, and the idea of running an avocado grove in Texas suddenly seems infinitely more appealing than staying in his rambling Midwestern house.
So a new life it is. Rudy heads off for a part of the world where he knows scarcely a soul. But he has a guide: a slender book called Philosophy Made Simple, each chapter highlighting the ideas of a different philosopher. No amount of Plato, Schopenhauer, or Sartre, however, can prepare Rudy for the surprises that emerge as he arranges for his daughter's Hindu wedding and gets to know Norma Jean - an elephant with a talent for painting - who is abandoned to Rudy's care and who leads him, ultimately, toward the prospect of a new love.
So a new life it is. Rudy heads off for a part of the world where he knows scarcely a soul. But he has a guide: a slender book called Philosophy Made Simple, each chapter highlighting the ideas of a different philosopher. No amount of Plato, Schopenhauer, or Sartre, however, can prepare Rudy for the surprises that emerge as he arranges for his daughter's Hindu wedding and gets to know Norma Jean - an elephant with a talent for painting - who is abandoned to Rudy's care and who leads him, ultimately, toward the prospect of a new love.
305 pages, Paperback
First published March 8, 2006
31 people are currently reading
453 people want to read
About the author
Robert Hellenga
11 books65 followersRobert Hellenga was an American novelist, essayist, and short story author.
His eight novels included The Sixteen Pleasures, The Fall of a Sparrow, Blues Lessons, Philosophy Made Simple, The Italian Lover, Snakewoman of Little Egypt, The Confessions of Frances Godwin and Love, Death, & Rare Books. In addition to these works, he wrote a novella, Six Weeks in Verona, along with a collection of short stories in The Truth About Death and Other Stories. Hellenga also published scholarly essays and literary or travel essays in various venues, including The National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times Sophisticated Traveler, and The Gettysburg Review.
Hellenga was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and grew up in Milwaukee and Three Oaks, Michigan. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan and his graduate work at the Queen’s University of Belfast, the University of North Carolina, and Princeton University. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton and began teaching English literature at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1968. In 1973–74 he was co-director of the ACM Seminar in the Humanities at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and in 1982–83 he directed the ACM Florence programs in Florence, Italy. He also worked and studied in Bologna, Verona, and Rome. He was distinguished writer in residence and professor emeritus at Knox College. Hellenga was married and had three daughters.
Hellenga received awards for his fiction from the Illinois Arts Council and from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Sixteen Pleasures received The Society of Midland Authors Award for Fiction published in 1994. The Fall of a Sparrow was included in the Los Angeles Times list of the "Best Fiction of 1998" and the Publishers Weekly list of the "Best 98 Books." Snakewoman of Little Egypt, was included in The Washington Post's list of "The Best Novels of 2010" and Kirkus Reviews' list of "2010 Best Fiction: The Top 25." The audio version of Snakewoman was a 2011 Audie Award Winner for Literary Fiction. The Confessions of Frances Godwin received The Society of Midland Authors' Award for fiction published in 2014.
Hellenga died of neuroendocrine cancer on July 18, 2020, at his home in Galesburg, Illinois.
His eight novels included The Sixteen Pleasures, The Fall of a Sparrow, Blues Lessons, Philosophy Made Simple, The Italian Lover, Snakewoman of Little Egypt, The Confessions of Frances Godwin and Love, Death, & Rare Books. In addition to these works, he wrote a novella, Six Weeks in Verona, along with a collection of short stories in The Truth About Death and Other Stories. Hellenga also published scholarly essays and literary or travel essays in various venues, including The National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times Sophisticated Traveler, and The Gettysburg Review.
Hellenga was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and grew up in Milwaukee and Three Oaks, Michigan. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan and his graduate work at the Queen’s University of Belfast, the University of North Carolina, and Princeton University. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton and began teaching English literature at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1968. In 1973–74 he was co-director of the ACM Seminar in the Humanities at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and in 1982–83 he directed the ACM Florence programs in Florence, Italy. He also worked and studied in Bologna, Verona, and Rome. He was distinguished writer in residence and professor emeritus at Knox College. Hellenga was married and had three daughters.
Hellenga received awards for his fiction from the Illinois Arts Council and from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Sixteen Pleasures received The Society of Midland Authors Award for Fiction published in 1994. The Fall of a Sparrow was included in the Los Angeles Times list of the "Best Fiction of 1998" and the Publishers Weekly list of the "Best 98 Books." Snakewoman of Little Egypt, was included in The Washington Post's list of "The Best Novels of 2010" and Kirkus Reviews' list of "2010 Best Fiction: The Top 25." The audio version of Snakewoman was a 2011 Audie Award Winner for Literary Fiction. The Confessions of Frances Godwin received The Society of Midland Authors' Award for fiction published in 2014.
Hellenga died of neuroendocrine cancer on July 18, 2020, at his home in Galesburg, Illinois.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 117 reviews
May 24, 2019
"Yaşamaya hazırlanmak gerçek anlamda yaşamaktan daha kolaydır, tıpkı bir yolculuğa hazırlanmanın yolculuğa çıkmaktan daha kolay olması gibi."
"Fil Aklı ölümsüzdür."
"Fil Aklı ölümsüzdür."
November 14, 2016
Öncelikle isminden başlamak istiyorum. Orijinal adından çok farklı ve hatta çok daha şeker bir isimle Türkçe’ye çevrilmesi fikrini pek bi sevdim. Çünkü “Hayatı Kolaylaştıran Felsefe” (hatta orijinal adını birebir çevirdiğimizde bu bile tam karşılığı olmuyor) “Avokado Bahçesi” kadar sıcak ve insanı saran bir auraya sahip değil. Hatta “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” filminin Türkçe çevirisinden sonra -Sil Baştan- en başarılı isim çevirisi diyebilirim :)
Gelelim kitaba… Madem çevirisinden başladım onunla devam edeyim. Çok özenli ve güzel bir çeviri olmuş. Bu da kitabın akıcı bir şekilde okunmasına olanak sağlıyor. Aslında çeviri için zor bir kitap. Çünkü bize yabancı birçok kültür unsurunu bir arada bulunduran ve ara ara felsefik göndermeler yapılan bir kitabı özensiz bir çeviri çekilmez kılardı. Ayrıca yerinde ve dozunda dipnotlarla yapılan bilgilendirmeler akışı bozmadan gerekli fikri özümsememiz açısından güzel olmuş.
Robert Hellenga’yı daha önce okumamıştım ve bu kitabın bir nevi devam kitabı gibi olduğunu da bilmiyordum. Fırsat olursa en azından “Sixteen Pleasures” kitabını okumayı düşünüyorum çünkü Rudy karakterinin öncesini de merak ettim.
Kitap ilginç birçok karakteri bir araya getiren güzel bir örgüden oluşmuş ve tabii ki en ilgi çekici noktası da Norma Jean ismindeki fil. Ancak diğer karakterlerin sanki kitap içine çok nüfus etmediğini hissettim. Yani Rudy ve fil Norma Jean dışında etkili birkaç karakter daha olsa daha güçlü olurmuş diye düşünmeden edemedim. Ayrıca kitabın orijinal adını düşündüğümüzde felsefeye yapılan atıfların da biraz sönük kaldığını düşünüyorum. Elbette bir "Sofie’nin Dünyası" gibi güçlü bir felsefe olgunu istemek haksızlık olur ama bence adı “Hayatı Kolaylaştıran Felsefe” olan bir kitap daha güçlü felsefik bağ kurabilirdi. Bu bakımadan yine Türkçe adının “Avokado Bahçesi” olması gayet isabetli olmuş bence.
Özetlemem gerekirse filin resim yapmasından ziyade ağlamasının beni çok etkilediği bu kitap aklımda şöyle yer edecek: “hayatın aslında göründüğünden çok daha derindir ve herkes bir şekilde kendi istekleri doğrultusunda algılar ve bu yönde şekil verir hayatına”.
Not: Kitap sonundaki sorular Edebiyat Dersi sorularından çok daha fena :) Açıkçası çok güzel sorular var ve kim hazırladı merak ediyorum :)
Gelelim kitaba… Madem çevirisinden başladım onunla devam edeyim. Çok özenli ve güzel bir çeviri olmuş. Bu da kitabın akıcı bir şekilde okunmasına olanak sağlıyor. Aslında çeviri için zor bir kitap. Çünkü bize yabancı birçok kültür unsurunu bir arada bulunduran ve ara ara felsefik göndermeler yapılan bir kitabı özensiz bir çeviri çekilmez kılardı. Ayrıca yerinde ve dozunda dipnotlarla yapılan bilgilendirmeler akışı bozmadan gerekli fikri özümsememiz açısından güzel olmuş.
Robert Hellenga’yı daha önce okumamıştım ve bu kitabın bir nevi devam kitabı gibi olduğunu da bilmiyordum. Fırsat olursa en azından “Sixteen Pleasures” kitabını okumayı düşünüyorum çünkü Rudy karakterinin öncesini de merak ettim.
Kitap ilginç birçok karakteri bir araya getiren güzel bir örgüden oluşmuş ve tabii ki en ilgi çekici noktası da Norma Jean ismindeki fil. Ancak diğer karakterlerin sanki kitap içine çok nüfus etmediğini hissettim. Yani Rudy ve fil Norma Jean dışında etkili birkaç karakter daha olsa daha güçlü olurmuş diye düşünmeden edemedim. Ayrıca kitabın orijinal adını düşündüğümüzde felsefeye yapılan atıfların da biraz sönük kaldığını düşünüyorum. Elbette bir "Sofie’nin Dünyası" gibi güçlü bir felsefe olgunu istemek haksızlık olur ama bence adı “Hayatı Kolaylaştıran Felsefe” olan bir kitap daha güçlü felsefik bağ kurabilirdi. Bu bakımadan yine Türkçe adının “Avokado Bahçesi” olması gayet isabetli olmuş bence.
Özetlemem gerekirse filin resim yapmasından ziyade ağlamasının beni çok etkilediği bu kitap aklımda şöyle yer edecek: “hayatın aslında göründüğünden çok daha derindir ve herkes bir şekilde kendi istekleri doğrultusunda algılar ve bu yönde şekil verir hayatına”.
Not: Kitap sonundaki sorular Edebiyat Dersi sorularından çok daha fena :) Açıkçası çok güzel sorular var ve kim hazırladı merak ediyorum :)
October 21, 2025
sanırım bu senenin en içimi ısıtan kitabını okudum!
rudy’nin hayatı aslında çoğumuzunkine benziyor; geçmişin yüküyle, gelecek kaygısıyla ve anlam arayışıyla dolu. eşini kaybetmiş, kızlarıyla karmaşık ilişkiler yaşayan bu adam, bir gün avokado çiftliği alıp bambaşka bir yola giriyor. ancak hayatındaki asıl değişim norma geldiğinde başlıyor. hindistan’dan gelen bu koca fil, rudy’nin yalnızlığına bir dost oluyor. norma, rudy için bir hayvan değil bence. o, sevginin ve kabullenişin ta kendisi gibi.
rudy’nin kendi halinde aristoteles’le, kant’la, kierkegaard’la kurduğu bağsa bana düşünmenin ne kadar insanca bir çaba olduğunu hatırlattı. bazen fil bakarken, avokado toplarken ya da bir fincan kahve içerken ya da sessizce otururken bile insan, hayata dair çok şey anlayabiliyor. ve bence bu, insan olmanın anlamlı yanlarından biri..
rudy’nin hayatı aslında çoğumuzunkine benziyor; geçmişin yüküyle, gelecek kaygısıyla ve anlam arayışıyla dolu. eşini kaybetmiş, kızlarıyla karmaşık ilişkiler yaşayan bu adam, bir gün avokado çiftliği alıp bambaşka bir yola giriyor. ancak hayatındaki asıl değişim norma geldiğinde başlıyor. hindistan’dan gelen bu koca fil, rudy’nin yalnızlığına bir dost oluyor. norma, rudy için bir hayvan değil bence. o, sevginin ve kabullenişin ta kendisi gibi.
rudy’nin kendi halinde aristoteles’le, kant’la, kierkegaard’la kurduğu bağsa bana düşünmenin ne kadar insanca bir çaba olduğunu hatırlattı. bazen fil bakarken, avokado toplarken ya da bir fincan kahve içerken ya da sessizce otururken bile insan, hayata dair çok şey anlayabiliyor. ve bence bu, insan olmanın anlamlı yanlarından biri..
May 26, 2017
My rating went from 3 stars to 2 because of what happened to Norma Jean. Did not like that at all.
August 23, 2009
This book sat on my shelf unread for some time, and I recently picked it up as part of an introspective journey that is part of making a life change at age 52. As I pack up/wrap up my life in a house that has been home for 26 years, years that seem to have passed very quickly, floating down a river of raising and maintaining a family, I find myself wondering if my perceptions of my life are really correct; was all as I perceived it to be? Was I so entrenched in the moment of the life, that I missed things? Where there parallel universes going on that had the same events but different realities? Was my reality the real reality that was happening?
The same sort of reflective introspection is at the heart of Philosophy Made Simple. The Allegory of the Cave, as applied to a single life raises all sort of questions about what happened over the last 30 - 40 years of a life. While you're busy living it, engaging with the shadows reflected on the wall of your "cave", what's really going on? Rudy's journey through Shiva's book as a means of making sense of his own life, is rife with metaphors. It also serves as a reminder that at its fundamental core, philosophy is about ordering and making sense of life and finding meaning. Ultimately, each finds one's own meaning and explanation. Why we are living our lives in our own universe, others are living parallel to us in theirs.
The same sort of reflective introspection is at the heart of Philosophy Made Simple. The Allegory of the Cave, as applied to a single life raises all sort of questions about what happened over the last 30 - 40 years of a life. While you're busy living it, engaging with the shadows reflected on the wall of your "cave", what's really going on? Rudy's journey through Shiva's book as a means of making sense of his own life, is rife with metaphors. It also serves as a reminder that at its fundamental core, philosophy is about ordering and making sense of life and finding meaning. Ultimately, each finds one's own meaning and explanation. Why we are living our lives in our own universe, others are living parallel to us in theirs.
February 22, 2017
This one kinda went wrong for me. I was really enjoying the book until the plot resolution. Perhaps I am just not the target audience for this book, or maybe I just didn't get it, but I felt parts of it were terribly far fetched in a book otherwise grounded in reality.
Most likely the ending of the book projected the author's intended tone, but it just wasn't for me. That said, it is well written and was a pleasure to read, even if the closure of the plot left something to be desired.
Most likely the ending of the book projected the author's intended tone, but it just wasn't for me. That said, it is well written and was a pleasure to read, even if the closure of the plot left something to be desired.
July 26, 2018
Rudy Harrington,eşini kaybediyor.7 yıl geçse de 7 gün önce olmuşçasına bir boşluk bu.Üç kızı da yanında değil ama bir dolu anıyla evinde oturmaya devam ediyor..Derken felsefeyle ilgilenmeye başlıyor,çünkü neden olmasın? ‘Hayatı kolaylaştıran felsefe’ kitabıyla başlayan yolculukta diğer durak ise Teksas!
Avokado bahçesiyle tanışıyor önce,sonra günde 4 resim yapan fil Norma Jean ile..Ve diğer karakterler beliriyor tüm renkleriyle..
Gördüklerimizin ötesini de düşündüren ve bunu yaparken sıcaklığını koruyan bir kitap Avokado Bahçesi.Kitaptaki her karakter (bilhassa başkahramanımız Rudy!) bir hikayeye sahip.Bu da okuma zevkini katmerliyor!
Kitap sonundaki yazar ile söyleşi ve kitaba dair sorular/tartışma konuları yazarın diğer eserlerini merak ettiriyor özellikle Rudy’nin diğer bir eserindeki (the sixteen pleasures) yan karakter olması ve yazarın bu karakter ile işinin bitmediğini hissetmesini öğrenmek bile yeter bu merak için.
Avokado bahçesiyle tanışıyor önce,sonra günde 4 resim yapan fil Norma Jean ile..Ve diğer karakterler beliriyor tüm renkleriyle..
Gördüklerimizin ötesini de düşündüren ve bunu yaparken sıcaklığını koruyan bir kitap Avokado Bahçesi.Kitaptaki her karakter (bilhassa başkahramanımız Rudy!) bir hikayeye sahip.Bu da okuma zevkini katmerliyor!
Kitap sonundaki yazar ile söyleşi ve kitaba dair sorular/tartışma konuları yazarın diğer eserlerini merak ettiriyor özellikle Rudy’nin diğer bir eserindeki (the sixteen pleasures) yan karakter olması ve yazarın bu karakter ile işinin bitmediğini hissetmesini öğrenmek bile yeter bu merak için.
January 22, 2019
The title caught my attention at a used book sale; I picked it up, thinking it was a non-fiction book. The story is about a recent widower and his relationship with his grown daughters. Deciding he would like a change in his life, he sells his house and moves halfway across the country. The titular Philosophy Made Simple is the book within the book he is reading; his autodidactical philosophical education is the lens through which he considers his own past and present existence. Fitting, since that is one of the purposes of philosophy; the unexamined life is not worth living, etc. The following soliloquy in which he considers a difference between himself and his wife is an example of what I mean:
"Reading Philosophy Made Simple, Rudy made another discovery that was perhaps equally important. He may have been a Platonist, but Helen, he realized, had been an Aristotelian. She'd attended DePaul University, “the little school under the El,” which is a Catholic school, but there wasn't a religious bone in her body. She had no use for another world. Other worlds spelled trouble. The Roman Catholic Church, she maintained, was the most corrupt institution in the history of the world, and other religions weren't far behind: “Just look around: Catholic versus Protestant; Methodist versus Free Methodist; Christian versus Jew; Jew versus Muslim; Shiite versus Sunni; Sephardic versus Ashkenazi; Hindu versus Muslim; Hindu versus Sikh. And so on.
No, this world had been enough for Helen. She'd had no interest in another world beyond the realm of appearances. She would have dismissed Plato's ideal forms – the real reality behind the world of appearances – just as Aristotle, according to Siva Singh, had dismissed them, saying they had no more meaning than singing la la la. Then why did she love medieval and Renaissance paintings? All those saints and madonnas and crucifixions and resurrections and epiphanies...? All of a sudden Rudy understood: it was because she insisted on looking at them, as if they were just things, whereas he tried to look through them. It was the same with music. Bach's B Minor Mass or “Mr. Jelly Roll Baker,” it didn't matter. She listened to the notes; he listened through them. She heard melody and harmony and counterpoint; he heard something calling him from far, far away.”
One of my pet peeves in fiction writing is stories that are primarily didactic tools and secondarily immersive story lines. The author is so intent on beating you over the head with the point (s)he wants to get across that every second page or so you are forcibly ejected from the narrative and realize you are reading a story. If that is the case, maybe you ought to have written a non-fiction book. Thankfully there is none of that heavy handedness here.
Interesting idea for a novel. The writing occasionally approaches the sublime:
“But now it was time to move on, time to let go. He didn't know how he knew this, but he knew it. He knew it as surely as migratory birds know when it's time to leave everything behind them and head out who knows where, and no one has ever figured out how they find their way, but they do. It was as if he were sprouting wings, big golden wings, like those on the angel on Margot's postcard, wings that would carry him out of the past and into the future, wherever he needed to go.”
Since I finished reading it I have learned that some of the characters in this book have books of their own. Perhaps I'll have a look into that.....
"Reading Philosophy Made Simple, Rudy made another discovery that was perhaps equally important. He may have been a Platonist, but Helen, he realized, had been an Aristotelian. She'd attended DePaul University, “the little school under the El,” which is a Catholic school, but there wasn't a religious bone in her body. She had no use for another world. Other worlds spelled trouble. The Roman Catholic Church, she maintained, was the most corrupt institution in the history of the world, and other religions weren't far behind: “Just look around: Catholic versus Protestant; Methodist versus Free Methodist; Christian versus Jew; Jew versus Muslim; Shiite versus Sunni; Sephardic versus Ashkenazi; Hindu versus Muslim; Hindu versus Sikh. And so on.
No, this world had been enough for Helen. She'd had no interest in another world beyond the realm of appearances. She would have dismissed Plato's ideal forms – the real reality behind the world of appearances – just as Aristotle, according to Siva Singh, had dismissed them, saying they had no more meaning than singing la la la. Then why did she love medieval and Renaissance paintings? All those saints and madonnas and crucifixions and resurrections and epiphanies...? All of a sudden Rudy understood: it was because she insisted on looking at them, as if they were just things, whereas he tried to look through them. It was the same with music. Bach's B Minor Mass or “Mr. Jelly Roll Baker,” it didn't matter. She listened to the notes; he listened through them. She heard melody and harmony and counterpoint; he heard something calling him from far, far away.”
One of my pet peeves in fiction writing is stories that are primarily didactic tools and secondarily immersive story lines. The author is so intent on beating you over the head with the point (s)he wants to get across that every second page or so you are forcibly ejected from the narrative and realize you are reading a story. If that is the case, maybe you ought to have written a non-fiction book. Thankfully there is none of that heavy handedness here.
Interesting idea for a novel. The writing occasionally approaches the sublime:
“But now it was time to move on, time to let go. He didn't know how he knew this, but he knew it. He knew it as surely as migratory birds know when it's time to leave everything behind them and head out who knows where, and no one has ever figured out how they find their way, but they do. It was as if he were sprouting wings, big golden wings, like those on the angel on Margot's postcard, wings that would carry him out of the past and into the future, wherever he needed to go.”
Since I finished reading it I have learned that some of the characters in this book have books of their own. Perhaps I'll have a look into that.....
yarım-bıraktıklarım
February 11, 2017bu kitabı da yarım bırakıyor olmak üzüyor ama beni kendine çekemediği için maalesef elim kitaba gitmiyor. bir gün tüm işimi gücümü düzene soktuğum zaman okurum belki ama daha uzun bir süre daha okumayı düşünmediğim için yarım-bıraktıklarım arasında yer buluyor kendine :(
September 28, 2016
Bu kitabı resim yapan fil Norma Jean'le hatırlayacağım daha çok. Gerisi karısı öldükten sonra evliliğini, kızlarıyla ilişkilerini ve yaşamını sorgulayan bir adamın doğaya kaçışı,vs vs. yer yer kişisel gelişim tadında anlardan oluşuyor. Günlük hayatla felsefi düşünceler arasındaki ikilemler bir süre sonra geri planda kalıyor ve karakterin yolculuğunun vardığı nokta da tartışılabilir. Yan karakterleri de o denli ilgi çekici bul(a)madım. Norma Jean hariç tabii :)
Çeviri gayet özenli görünüyor ve akıcı, ki böyle bir kitap için hayati bir şey. Zira aksi olsaydı mesela Hint felsefesine yapılan o göndermeleri okumak zorlaşabilirdi.
Çeviri gayet özenli görünüyor ve akıcı, ki böyle bir kitap için hayati bir şey. Zira aksi olsaydı mesela Hint felsefesine yapılan o göndermeleri okumak zorlaşabilirdi.
May 3, 2022
Before I start, I can't fathom why two people have shelved this as contemporary and I am apparently the first to shelve it historical fiction when--wait for it--it was published in 2006 and is set in the 1960s! Okay, I cans see that some people use contemporary for books written in our time, but it just goes to show you that this book has not been shelved nearly enough times.
In short, a 60 year old widower is given a book called Philosophy Made Simple which he reads through this novel even as he makes a huge life change by selling his house in the mid-west and buying an avocado orchard in Texas while arranging for the wedding of one of his daughters. He contemplates these philosophies as well as his life, etc, though the book while various and sundry other things happen.
This is one of those books that started off strong for me--I was leaning to 4 or more stars, but later went downhill. This isn't Hellenga's writing, but because he did a great job of tying the story into the philosophy the protagonist was reading about at various times through the novel. Being familiar with the philosophies in question I could see this, but it meant also that things about this story went downhill, particularly later on. There are many other philosophers not discussed (there are so very many), but unlike Genesis by Bernard Beckett there wasn't anything about this that made me feel that it was very worth my while to have read it and that it was fabulous enough to give it lots of stars despite this sort of thing.
In short, a 60 year old widower is given a book called Philosophy Made Simple which he reads through this novel even as he makes a huge life change by selling his house in the mid-west and buying an avocado orchard in Texas while arranging for the wedding of one of his daughters. He contemplates these philosophies as well as his life, etc, though the book while various and sundry other things happen.
This is one of those books that started off strong for me--I was leaning to 4 or more stars, but later went downhill. This isn't Hellenga's writing, but because he did a great job of tying the story into the philosophy the protagonist was reading about at various times through the novel. Being familiar with the philosophies in question I could see this, but it meant also that things about this story went downhill, particularly later on. There are many other philosophers not discussed (there are so very many), but unlike Genesis by Bernard Beckett there wasn't anything about this that made me feel that it was very worth my while to have read it and that it was fabulous enough to give it lots of stars despite this sort of thing.
July 23, 2007
A "sequel", in a way, to Sixteen Pleasures, Hellenga's love letter to Florence and his hilarious look at the hypocrisy of the Church. Not as beautifully written as Fall of the Sparrow, my personal favorite, but he does examine the "meaning of life" by telling everyday stories and reflecting on them through classical philosophy. Not as thorough as Sophie's World but not as didactic either and more fun. The Bookmarks review on amazon is good. One thing I love about Hellenga is that he provides insight into the male perspective much like Pat Conroy and Wallace Stegner do. I also loved the resolution of this novel: each us make our own meaning.
August 5, 2018
I forced myself through this book, but man, was it a struggle. I have a philosophy degree, and I was hoping for much more integration of Classical philosophical ideas with a captivating plot. This book was so disjointed, bizarre, and dull, with the philosophy piece being much more of a gimmick than anything actually meaningful. I got through it, but just barely.
July 5, 2009
This book would have merited four stars except that the ending does not seem to fit the rest of the book and left me disgruntled.
January 19, 2016
There is something about Robert Hellenga's writing that I just love and Philosophy Made Simple is no exception. This is the story of Rudy Harrington, Margot's (from The Sixteen Pleasures) father and it takes place at roughly the same time. Rudy, 60, a widower, with three grown daughters wanders around his empty house in Chicago and feels the ghosts and the aimlessness of his present existence. After being given a book called Philosophy Made Simple which was written by the uncle of his daughter, Molly's fiancee he begins to question life and its meaning:
"Rudy didn't say anything to the girls about his vision, because he he was trying to understand it himself. After Christmas, after everyone had gone, he sat down in Helen's study and reread the first chapter of Philosophy Made Simple. He was trying to figure out what had happened to him on Christmas Eve. he was looking for a passage in which Uncle Siva-- TJ's uncle Siva-- quotes Socrates'
comparison of the soul to a bird , he underlined it: for a man who beholds the beauty of this world will sometimes be reminded of true beauty, and his wings will begin to grow and he will desire to spread his wings and fly upward, and because he gazes upward, like a bird, and cares nothing for the world below, he will be considered, mad."
Rudy then makes a radical decision and sells his house in Chicago and buys and avocado grove in Texas where he meets all kinds of characters like his ranch foreman, Merdado and the Russian who lives next door to him who owns an elephant named Norma Jean. Norma Jean just happens to be a painting elephant and Rudy loves her paintings and so he buys them for the rooms of his new house:
"Then he and Merdado unpacked the books and shelved them at random: Rudy didn't care. He could sort them out later. Right now he wanted to see what the room would look like full of books. It looked beautiful. The finishing tousch was Golden Flower and Jade Tree, another Norma Jean, which Rudy hung between the two deep set windows on the north wall. It was a beautiful room, a serious room where serious thinking could be done.
If Rudy and Merdardo had been speaking English they would soon have exhausted their supply of conversation, but in Spanish things took time, and the beer and the fatigue made Rudy less self-conscious. In Spanish he was a different person --more relaxed, less impatient. Time slowed down in Spanish. A simple story about something that had happened on the market, which would take two minutes to tell in English, would take him fifteen minutes in Spanish. And there were topics he and Medardo would probably have avoided in English: Rudy's Philosophical project or quest for example. Rudy couldn't imagine giving an account of it in English, but in Spanish it seemed easy to explain to Merdardo what he was trying to accomplish, as if he were spending Monopoly money instead of real money: to get some answers to the big questions to settle on a rule of life."
Hellenga has a way of unfolding a story, slowly and patiently and letting the reader savor the feel of Rudy's life in Texas. You get to enjoy the meals he prepares of pan-fried steak and bosc pears, to enjoy the feel the Rio Grande as it encircles his body as he floats down the river and to feel his anxiety as he plans a wedding for his daughter Molly.
It is a lovely little read with the feel that there is something grander under the surface. I know that I will be pondering it for sometime and feel propelled to read my final Hellenga, The Italian Lover.
"Rudy didn't say anything to the girls about his vision, because he he was trying to understand it himself. After Christmas, after everyone had gone, he sat down in Helen's study and reread the first chapter of Philosophy Made Simple. He was trying to figure out what had happened to him on Christmas Eve. he was looking for a passage in which Uncle Siva-- TJ's uncle Siva-- quotes Socrates'
comparison of the soul to a bird , he underlined it: for a man who beholds the beauty of this world will sometimes be reminded of true beauty, and his wings will begin to grow and he will desire to spread his wings and fly upward, and because he gazes upward, like a bird, and cares nothing for the world below, he will be considered, mad."
Rudy then makes a radical decision and sells his house in Chicago and buys and avocado grove in Texas where he meets all kinds of characters like his ranch foreman, Merdado and the Russian who lives next door to him who owns an elephant named Norma Jean. Norma Jean just happens to be a painting elephant and Rudy loves her paintings and so he buys them for the rooms of his new house:
"Then he and Merdado unpacked the books and shelved them at random: Rudy didn't care. He could sort them out later. Right now he wanted to see what the room would look like full of books. It looked beautiful. The finishing tousch was Golden Flower and Jade Tree, another Norma Jean, which Rudy hung between the two deep set windows on the north wall. It was a beautiful room, a serious room where serious thinking could be done.
If Rudy and Merdardo had been speaking English they would soon have exhausted their supply of conversation, but in Spanish things took time, and the beer and the fatigue made Rudy less self-conscious. In Spanish he was a different person --more relaxed, less impatient. Time slowed down in Spanish. A simple story about something that had happened on the market, which would take two minutes to tell in English, would take him fifteen minutes in Spanish. And there were topics he and Medardo would probably have avoided in English: Rudy's Philosophical project or quest for example. Rudy couldn't imagine giving an account of it in English, but in Spanish it seemed easy to explain to Merdardo what he was trying to accomplish, as if he were spending Monopoly money instead of real money: to get some answers to the big questions to settle on a rule of life."
Hellenga has a way of unfolding a story, slowly and patiently and letting the reader savor the feel of Rudy's life in Texas. You get to enjoy the meals he prepares of pan-fried steak and bosc pears, to enjoy the feel the Rio Grande as it encircles his body as he floats down the river and to feel his anxiety as he plans a wedding for his daughter Molly.
It is a lovely little read with the feel that there is something grander under the surface. I know that I will be pondering it for sometime and feel propelled to read my final Hellenga, The Italian Lover.
February 15, 2017
Kitabın ismi çok sevimli geldiği için konusunu da okuyarak almıştım, insanı sıkmadan içerisinde felsefi anlatımı olan kitapları severim, bu açıdan kolay okunabilir olduğunu söyleyebilirim ama bir önceki kitaptan da hikayeyi tamamlaması gereken unsurlar olduğu için (belki de daha önce o kitabı okumak gerekliydi) bazı konular benim için havada kaldı diyebilirim. Genel olarak çok akıcı bir kitap değil, ancak farklı kültürler, bir insanın biraz da orta yaş bunalımı ile hayatını gözden geçirmesi, pişmanlıkları vs. gibi konular ve Norma Jean adlı fil hoş bir enstantane oluşturmuş arka planda. Okumak isteyenlere tavsiyem öncelikli olarak yazarın diğer kitabını okumaları olur..Hikaye güzel ancak çok akıcı bir kitap değil..
September 4, 2011
author should have chosen different title. i was really going for the philosophy part of this book, but instead got a plain, boring and in places absurd story of a man, who tries to tell himself that it is ok, if your wife cheats on you, cause everyone just need "a small adventura". phff.
i'm actually surprised that i got trough it. next time i'll be interested in philosophy i just take a text book.
i'm actually surprised that i got trough it. next time i'll be interested in philosophy i just take a text book.
January 6, 2014
I wanted to like this book. I didn't give up on it, even though I would take breaks of 2 and 3 days and nothing was pulling me back to it except my own stubborn determination to finish it. In the end, I just didn't care for it.
January 24, 2022
Rudy Harrington is a 60 year old widower who wants to jump start his retirement and elevate the way he sees his life. He's a decent and straightfoward guy who receives a copy of a book, Philosophy Made Simple, written by his daughter's boyfriend's uncle, the philosopher Siva Singh. Realizing he might only have a few years left, he decides to move to Texas, where he buys a dusty avocado grove on the edges of the Rio Grande. Second thoughts overwhelm him until he gets gets to know Norma Jean, an elephant who paints the most amazing abstract art.
Over the course of the book, Rudy learns a lot about raising avocados, visits a Mexican brothel, plans a wedding for one of his daughters with a role for Norma Jean, falls in love, and studies that philosophy book as he goes, reflecting on the meaning of it all,
Rudy's journey is one of courage and wisdom, a never-ending quest to explore the profound mysteries of human existence. This would be a great book club selection.
Over the course of the book, Rudy learns a lot about raising avocados, visits a Mexican brothel, plans a wedding for one of his daughters with a role for Norma Jean, falls in love, and studies that philosophy book as he goes, reflecting on the meaning of it all,
Rudy's journey is one of courage and wisdom, a never-ending quest to explore the profound mysteries of human existence. This would be a great book club selection.
October 16, 2024
I stuck with this novel to the end but only enjoyed parts of it. The story about owning a elephant that painted art that sold for high prices after the elephant died was a bit off the wall, but I enjoyed that imagination part of the book.
What I found was that the "Philosophy Made Simple" philosophic musings were as Greek to me as to Rudy, the primary character in the book. The segments that caught my attention and interest were of the love stories both with Rudy's wife and the lady from India.
Curious about the author, since I had picked up the book as a "freebee" in an airport in Moab, Utah to read on the plane going home, I looked him up, saw he had many prizes for his writing but had died of neuroendocrine cancer on July 18, 2020, at his home in Galesburg, Illinois.
October 1, 2019
" Bence dedi Siva anın tadını çıkarmak istiyormuş gibi sandalyesinde arkasına yaslanarak, 'bence hayatın sorularına direkt olarak başka birinden cevap almaya çalışmak, bir sınavda kopya çekmeye çalışmak gibi. Kendi cevaplarını yaratmak zorundasın. Ve kendi cevaplarını oluşturduğunda onları başka insanlara iletemediğini göreceksin. "
Hayatını tek düze geçireceğini düşünen eşini kaybetmiş bir adamın yeniden başlama hikayesi. O kadar yalın o kadar huzurlu ki kendinizi o avokado bahçesinin ortasında ; bir fil resim çizerken, sizde onun yanında kahvenizi yudumlarken bulabilirsiniz.
~
Ben çok sevdim bu tatlı kitabı.
Hayatını tek düze geçireceğini düşünen eşini kaybetmiş bir adamın yeniden başlama hikayesi. O kadar yalın o kadar huzurlu ki kendinizi o avokado bahçesinin ortasında ; bir fil resim çizerken, sizde onun yanında kahvenizi yudumlarken bulabilirsiniz.
~
Ben çok sevdim bu tatlı kitabı.
January 3, 2020
Thank goodness this book was not what I expected. A man's life is turned upside down upon his wife's death. His children are grown and living their own lives, but have time to be critical of their dad's decisions. Rudy finds a book, Philosophy Made Simple. As Rudy reads the book, he begins a new life and ways of viewing situations. Parts of the book are so emotional that it's difficult to read, but there's portions that are just over the top. This is a book club read. I probably would not have read this book otherwise.
December 6, 2021
This is a lovely book about the final phase of life – – a man whose wife has passed away and he realizes he has one more phase of his life to do something. I found the interweaving of basic philosophy with his curiosity about what life could mean quite poignant. And I really loved the elephant too.
July 8, 2025
I somehow knew this novel would break my heart. Sigh. I was probably supposed to feel happy at the end, but—no. And philosophy was not made simple enough—or maybe I was too interested in the storyline.
July 19, 2017
good reading
July 23, 2017
My favorite read this summer so far. Love the characters, the humor, the sweetness and zany surprises of this book. Beautiful writing, too.
January 25, 2019
Really enjoyed this book. Smooth and easy to read, fun and a bit different.
August 16, 2019
Very entertaining
February 19, 2020
it is a good read. Maybe I expected a more thought-provoking book regarding the interpretation of the ancient Greek philosophies for 21st-century life in the US.
January 19, 2022
Loved the Sixteen Pleasures. Did not love this.
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