Эволюция желания. Жизнь Рене Жирара

Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture (SVMC)

by Cynthia L. Haven, Синтия Л. Хэвен

«Любое желание — это желание быть», — говорил знаменитый франко-американский философ Рене Жирар. Именно наши желания определяют, кто мы есть, однако нам они не принадлежат: будучи миметическими (подражательными и зеркальными), они превращают нас в бесконечную серию чужих отражений. Желание — это эволюция длиною в жизнь: мы начинаем подражать еще детьми, соперничаем в школе и на работе, хотим все большего, страдаем, не получая желаемого, и раскаиваемся на смертном одре. Книга Синтии Хэвен — первая в своем роде биография Жирара, основанная на беседах с ним самим, его близкими, друзьями и коллегами из Франции и США. Жизнь мыслителя предстает в ней иллюстрацией к его теории, которая раскрывается не как отвлеченная умозрительная концепция, но как философия для жизни, которую он первый же и стремился практиковать. Годы учебы в родном Авиньоне и промозглом оккупированном Париже, судьбоносный переезд в США, религиозное обращение в конце 1950-х, открытие насильственных истоков культуры, сомнения, признание и его соблазны — читатель узнает, как разворачивалась его духовная и творческая эволюция от первой работы «Ложь романтизма и правда романа», через фундаментальную «Насилие и священное» к мрачным апокалиптическим пророчествам его заключительной книги «Завершить Клаузевица».

Genres: Biography, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Psychology, Sociology, History, Literature

448 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Cynthia L. Haven writes regularly for The Times Literary Supplement, and has also contributed to The New York Times, The Nation, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and many others. She is also the author of several books, including volumes on Nobel poets Czeslaw Milosz and Joseph Brodsky.

Reviews

[Andrew Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography is personal as the author knew and admired its subject during his last years. This keep the book from being and objective biography as the author is a participant. But then René Girard discovered the shortcomings of so-called objective truth, so such a biography is fitting. The readership, for the time being anyway, is also likely to be personal. Most readers are likely to have known Girard personally, as is my case, or have become interested in Girard's thought through someone who knew him personally. Anyone who has found Girard's ideas compelling, or at least of vital interest, should find the life behind the ideas worth knowing about.

Often this book borders on hagiography, presenting Girard as a modern-day saint. On the other hand, Haven writes about Girard's personal struggles that he experienced while developing his ideas. From my own experience, I would say Girard was not a plastic saint but he had quiet magnetic quality about him with gracious and generous manners with which he encouraged people like me who were interested in developing his thought in new ways. Haven shows how Girard did not have followers but colleagues. That was how I saw him. Girard really wanted other people to feel free to find new applications of his thought.

For me, and probably even for those who knew Girard well for many years, much of his life was veiled in mystery. Haven uncovers at least much of this mystery. I had always wondered how growing up during the German occupation might have affected Girard and his thoughts on violence. Perhaps not everything is explained but Haven gives us a strong and grim picture with a few snapshots of Girard's troubled place within it.

Girard's first few years in America show us a man with little sense of direction and less accomplishment. Hardly a hint of the man and thinker he would become. But Girard married his partner Martha at his first post at Indiana University and we get to see many of the ways Martha drew the best out of her husband, a trait visible to those of us who saw them together.

For a man who became unusually conscious of inner reality that many of us avoid seeing, Haven shows some instances where Girard seems to have absorbed what was happening without ever really seeing it. The two examples that most come to mind are the virulent scapegoating of so-called collaborationists in France after the occupation and the violence to the negro that seems to have shocked Girard during his time at Duke University, yet Girard never seems to have seen the race problems in America as clearly as one might think he would have.

I was particularly moved by Haven's discussion of a series of what called be called mystical experiences that Girard experienced during train rides while he was finishing up his first book where he first uncovers the reality of what he called mimetic desire. Girard was plunged from his academic perch into the personalities of the fictional characters he was writing about and convicted of the same rivalrous traits that they had. THis experience, intensified by a cancer scare let Girard back to the Catholic Church in which he had been raised and which he had willfully rejected.

Girard went on the write much about Christ with much penetrating insight, the kind of insight that professional theologians often miss. But he never acted in a sanctimonious way as far as I knew and I see none of that in this book. Rather, Haven shows us a man constantly challenged by the example of Christ and struggling to live up to that. Given the importance of the Innsbruck theologian Raymund Schager to Girard's theological insights, his presence in the book seemed skimpy but what Haven did say was of the utmost importance. She noted how Schwager's own self-effacing personality, combined with a penetrating intellect, deepened Girard's own spirituality through his personal presence. Having met Schwager myself and found him most generous and supportive, I can appreciate this effect on Girard.

Haven discusses the development of Girard's thought in a way that amounts to an effective introduction to it for readers not familiar with it. Haven also connects to ideas to the person and his environment, including the strained relationships with most of the academic world. This estrangement is not surprising because Girard went his own way regardless of fashions, led by his teeming brain, his dialogs with those interested in his ideas, and his growing faith in God. Whether one agrees with Girard's ideas a lot or a little or not at all, they present a personal challenge to all comers.

This review also is not objective, as you can see. Even so, I hope it helps others approach a most valuable book.

[Michael Morrissey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few books in recent memory have given me as much pleasure as this intellectual biography of the literary theorist, René Girard. For those unfamiliar with the work of the great French thinker, this book will serve as a marvelous and captivating introduction. For those already acquainted with Girard’s works, much more will be gained. Haven’s biography draws heavily on Girard’s books, his published conversations with colleagues and friends, the secondary literature, and most importantly the author’s own conversations with Girard and those who knew him. Haven met with Girard regularly for extensive conversations over the last eight years of his life, developing a friendship that deeply informs her writing. She also interviewed fellow scholars and colleagues of Girard in Europe and America.

The book covers the course of Girard’s life from his origins in Avignon, his early formation and experiences during WWII, his emigration to America, his years at Indiana University, John Hopkins, SUNY Buffalo, and finally Stanford, where he died in late 2015. Though no bibliography of Girard’s numerous works is provided, there is a Chronology at the end of the book that identifies all of Girard’s books published in French and English, as well as in English and French translation, along with the major events in Girard’s life and career. Interweaved with the biographical story is a splendid elucidation of Girard’s life-long investigation of human nature and the origins of religion by way of his anthropological analyses of many of the great literary works of Western Civilization. The author fleshes out Girard’s key concepts of mimetic desire, scapegoating, violence, sacrifice, etc., seeking to root them where she can in Girard’s own personal experiences.

The book is filled with pleasurable nuggets: stories, anecdotes, and insights from Haven’s personal recollections and those of family, colleagues, and friends of Girard. One delightful example (from page 201) casts light on the peculiar relation between the competing truths of fact and fiction that every biographer and every historian (and indeed every literary theorist like Girard himself) must confront. Recounting a story she received from eyewitnesses, Haven writes, “In 2004, social and political philosopher Jean-Pierre Dupuy was attending a conference in Berlin when he was confronted at a café by a man who asked, ‘Why did you become a Girardian?’ He responded in a beat, ‘Because it’s cheaper than psychoanalysis.’” When she sought to confirm this story from the Dupuy himself, he said in effect, “It’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.”

Haven’s own reading of Girard’s life and thought is duly sensitive and often keen—some interpretations are unmistakable and some cautiously proposed but none gratuitous or unjustified. Her account is well-researched and reflects the labor of love that the writing of this book must have been for her, no doubt inspired by her love for the man himself (which, of course, as she quips in her dedication, was “not the triangular sort”). Both fans and critics of Girard, one of the truly great thinkers of the twentieth century, will benefit greatly from the story told by this gifted writer. None can ignore her authoritative account of the man and his work. Highly recommended!

[James Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Rene Girard can be intimidating. His works are complex, and he was prolific. Fortunately, in this new biography of Girard, Haven proves a reliable, critically sympathetic, and widely learned guide to his life and thought. While this is not an exposition of his works, Haven provides the framework of his thought, how it evolved, and how it changed, and as such provides an excellent grounding for taking on some of Girard's most compelling works, especially his late work, Battling to the End (Achever Clausewitz). There are also insightful portraits of Girard and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Buffalo, and Stanford and some of the seminal moments in the development of post-war critical movements, especially the "French invasion" and the storming of the structuralist ramparts by the likes of Derrida and Lacan. Haven has a sharp eye for irony and humor in these passages. She connects the man and his thinking with warmth and affection without losing sight that Girard's theories were far from universally acclaimed, and some of the reasons why this was so. Girard's thought will endure long after the ephemeral approaches of Foucault and Derrida have vanished, and as one of the seminal thinkers of the 20th century (along with Eric Voegelin, inter alia, another thinker who struggled for acceptance) it is worth reading this fine book, even if you think you know Girard's thought already.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography was a surprise, prompted by Robert Pogue Harrison’s review in the NYRB. Over the years I’ve had several of Girard’s books in my library, barely read; the argument always struck me as didactic and dry. Cynthia Haven’s deeply sympathetic biography changed my mind. I also had to conclude that I’d absorbed more of Girard’s thinking than I’d realized.

I won’t try to summarize Girard’s “mimetic theory” – to any interested in a quick overview, I recommend Harrison’s review linked above. It’s not the universal explanatory principle some have taken it to be, but it is provocative and (to me) extraordinary in its insights. Haven to her credit does not try to disguise the Christian core of Girard’s thought, even though it’s almost enough to stop unbelievers like me in their tracks. I’m glad I kept going. The biography concludes with an almost mystical meditation into the nature of violence and forgiveness. I don’t know if I’ll re-read the books I already have, but I was prompted to order his study of Shakespeare, which is even more obscure than most and completely ignored. I look forward to the adventure.

[Rico · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent point of entry to mimetic desire and Rene Girard, but also a great overall picture of the person Rene Girard.

[Steve Greenleaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been circling around the thought of Rene Girard (1923-2015) for over a decade now, like a vulture, fearful that the prey might not be ready for the picking, that it might bite back. Or to put it more prosaically, I might be attempting to bite off more than I can chew. But my gnawing desire to understand myself and my fellow humans—especially in this turbulent age, where we, as a species, seem to be headed deeper into a time of troubles—led me to commit to overcoming my reticence. I ordered and received a copy of Girard’s first book, Deceit, Desire and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure (1961/English translation 1966). And while I was at it, I decided to check out what a local library had available. In my search, I discovered this book. I’m glad I did. Perhaps, it might be argued, that I should ignore the individual author and the particulars of his entire life, but Haven’s book goes beyond a mere academic study of Girard’s work and beyond a mere recitation of the facts of Girard’s life. R.G. Collingwood, in writing his autobiography, argued that “the autobiography of a man whose business is thinking should be the story of his thought. I have written this book to tell what I think worth telling about the story of mine.” Autobiography, vii. The justification of a biography of a person of thought should be no different; what interests us most should be the genesis of the subject’s thought and how the circumstances of the subject’s life relate to that thought. Of course, different subjects and different biographers will draw those lines differently, with more or less finesse and justification, but in any event, Cynthia Haven’s choices in this regard strike me as exemplary.

One advantage Haven enjoyed in writing this biography was her personal acquaintance with Girard. Although not a tenured academic herself, she lived and worked around (and for) Stanford University, and came to know and befriend Girard late in his life. Thus, with the aid of Girard’s wife and family, as well as directly from Girard, she was able to recreate the life and career of this extraordinary thinker. Indeed, Girard didn’t follow a traditional trajectory in his life or career. Girard was born and raised in Avignon, France, and trained in Paris at a school for “chartists,” to wit, an archivist, like his father. But after the war (Girard was just young enough to avoid service), he emigrated to the U.S., where obtained a Ph.D. in history from Indiana University. And there, because of demand, he ended up in the French Department, and remained a member of the French, Romance, or English language departments at the subsequent universities he taught at. But after the publication of his first book, he broke the bounds of literature to make the whole of human relations as his subject of study, not just literature. Having become a literary scholar, he realized the reality of what he dubbed “mimetic desire” not only in literature, but in human life. From this still early point in his career, human life as it is shaped by mimetic desire becomes his big idea that he continues to unpack through the remainder of his life, through the arenas not only of literature, but also anthropology, religion, sociology, politics, philosophy, and history. In Isaiah Berlin’s nomenclature, Girard was a hedgehog, he held one big idea; but in developing that big idea, he was a fox, continually exploring different fields, oblivious to academic boundaries. (And you can no doubt imagine that those more concerned with academic boundaries would attempt to shoo Girard away when he came sniffing around their fields—to no avail.

In addition to detailing the story of the unfolding of Girard’s big idea, Haven also provides an appreciation of the man and his work. If Haven is to believed—and I’ve not reason to doubt her—Girard was a dynamic but charming man. His personal life appears to have been content and unremarkable; his marriage extended 64 years, to the time of his death in 2015. But his ideas? They remained relatively little known and appreciated until later in his life, but it seems, they have begun to gain a wider readership since the time of his death. This might be in part because of the enthusiasm for his ideas expressed by the Silicon entrepreneur and Trumpist, Peter Thiel. (How Thiel reconciles his expressed admiration for Girard—and Thiel has put his money where is mouth is—and his support of Trumpism, remains a mystery to me. Trump is the incarnation of an individual with unchecked desire who promotes rivalry, scapegoating, and violence—that which Girard’s project seeks to ameliorate and perhaps even overcome.)

We should note at this point that one reason why some have shied away from Girard’s work is because of its specifically religious implications. Girard was raised in a nominally Catholic family (at least on his mother’s side), but as a young adult he stepped away from any practice that he’d inherited. But then in the late 1950s, he underwent an epiphany of sorts and returned to Catholicism. The event is not well specified by Haven, but then I suspect that Girard didn’t provide much in the way of specifics. And all of this might conversion experience might not even have been remarked upon in passing except that in 1978 Girard published a further and relatively complete exposition of his insight in the work later translated and published in English translation in 1987 as Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. In this work, Girard’s insights take a specifically Christian turn. One of the insights of the theory of mimetic desire is that these desires create rivalries that in turn create social unrest. To alleviate social unrest, societies turn to scapegoats, often individuals on the margins of society who are seen as common enemy and source of the social unrest. Girard argues that the story of the passion and death of Jesus is a scapegoat story, but that the innocence of the victim is manifest and therefore can serve to break the scapegoat mechanism. In fact, I may have first come across Giard’s when I read Princeton philosopher Mark Johnston’s Saving God: Religion After Idolatry (2009) (with further references here and here). I’ve also seen Girard discussed by philosopher Roger Scruton and polymath Garry Wills, among others. Do I think then that Girard is a "religious writer?” No, at least not in the sense that one must be a Christian or in any sense religious to appreciate (and acknowledge) what Girard’s thesis suggests. If Girard is correct that mimetic desire is a fundamental fact of human relationships (society), then whether Christianity (or any other religion) effectively deals with this dilemma is up for grabs.

This book was a pleasure to read. Do I conclude that I know all about Girard and all that he says and implies? No! But it does serve as an aperitif, and it has stimulated my desire (mimetic?) to work through the main course, which will be a long, slow feast to consume and savor.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evolution of Desire, a biography of René Girard by Cynthia L. Haven, is an intriguing, sometimes heavy-going, study of a radical French intellectual who built his career in American universities but never lost touch with France.

Girard began his career writing about literature and expanded beyond literature into speculations of a more anthropological cast. He contended that literature is data, it can be mined, it is an artifact molded by and true to life. So he moved from writing about Cervantes and Proust to probing the Old and New Testaments and the German philosopher of war, Clausewitz...with thousands of forays into other writing, some literary, some sociological, some theological.

Haven's portrait is of a beloved if controversial academic who was reserved but kind, ironic but gentle, and relentlessly wrapped-up in his thoughts, taking him from Johns Hopkins to SUNY Buffalo and back to Johns Hopkins and finally to Stanford. Girard was, intellectually, a humanist, and yet he also was, by dint of a personal conversion, a Christian. He located the source of human desire, often yielding violence, in mimesis, or copying. As a Spaniard once told me about Spaniards in general, envidia (envy), is the most important fact about Spanish society. And then a Mexican told me the same thing about Mexicans...make your own mind up if it is also true about your nation, wherever you live.

Girard would have it that groups admiringly copy one another, end up contesting each other's possessions/achievements, and the ensuing conflict, if it comes to an end, arrives by means of a hero (think Christ) being martyred...a hero on the loser's side, of course. So that's a core thought, not Freudian sex or death drives: we emulate on another, band together and violate one another and end up accumulating a series of martyrs (not just Christ) as mementoes of humanity's inability to transcend its covetousness, which extends beyond possessions to customs, virtues and values.

Well, I like reading books like this even though in this case Haven knew Girard and there are times when her personal appraisals and reports have the quality of magazine writing. Those passages can be forgiven, however, because there are numerous instances of her reaching beyond her multitude of sources to express exceedingly complex ideas than the sources themselves (Girard himself, I would say) were able to do.

Girard seemed embarrassed to be accused of having concocted a theory of mankind, but in the final chapters of the book his early theory of mimesis takes a turn that encompasses a theory of history, too. From the French Revolution on, we begin to see violence itself as the greatest of historical forces...and a force that increasingly is beyond control...not subject to reconciliation by martyrdom (the loser's consolation.) On the one hand, we now have nuclear weaponry. That's potentially apocalyptic. On the other hand, we have the provocations of smaller twists of the technological knife...airplanes flying into buildings, for example. And then there is the furnace of social media, chockfull of envy, stoking violence, threatening to catch us all up in an uncontrollable dynamic of mutual accusation that turns into an endless string of violent acts (think Sandy Hook, think Las Vegas, think Charlie Hebdo, think Yemen, think Ukraine, think Syria) to which we become accustomed and anesthetized.

Haven gets into all this through conversations with Girard in his last years and through his final book on Clausewitz. In a sense, so much is taken into consideration that it's impossible to consider it all. In another sense, there's a ring of truth here.

[Sean Rodriguez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really hated and loved this book at the same time. The topics on Mimetic Theory, Desire, and Scapegoats really drew my attention. I enjoyed the part of connections to theology and apocalyptic literature tied to scapegoating. I also appreciated when Girard moved to California and the small name drop of Girard being Peter Thiel’s professor.

There was a lot I didn’t like about combative theories whether Freud or Dante or another philosopher was more right. Parts of this books was heavily focused on academia and its history, which makes the reader get lost in the details. Maybe this book was a bit too advanced for me??

Not a huge recommendation to read this book, but I would be excited to learn more about his Rene’s theories a bit more rather than his life.

[Ben McFarland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn into reading Girard by the first section of this book, which I read as part of my daily regimen of blog reading. On the strength of this and other mentions of Girard from authors as diverse as Richard Beck and Amos Yong, I read The Girard Reader and then Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. When I started, I wondered if Haven's comparison of Girard's theory to Schliemann's discovery of Troy was unfair. After reading these three books, I think it is unfair -- in its over-generosity to Schliemann. Girard's accomplishment is the greater of the two.


Haven's book must be the best introduction to Girard for a general reader. A few quibbles: It gets a little too bogged down in the politics of the conference Girard helped organize that introduced Derrida to America, and it could hold Girard's feet to the fire a little more than it does. I feel like Girard's Wikipedia page is more critical than this book. The thing is, I think Girard's theory more or less endures all the criticism thrown at it. But before this book existed, I would have doubted that someone could write it. Yet here it is. I'd like to know what someone thinks for whom this is the very first exposure to Girard, and maybe I'll give it as a Christmas gift? Friends, you've been warned.

[Phil Bodrock]

Thank you for Evolution of Desire, your informed, intelligent, and sympathetic biography of René Girard. I hope that your book will motivate others to grapple with René's oeuvre and explore his thought.

I was a graduate student at Buffalo during René's time there and attended his seminars. He was on one of my doctoral committees. You've captured the essence of the good and gentle genius who supported and inspired so many of us.

[David Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cynthia Haven's biography of Rene Girard opened my eyes to a world of social science philosophers who shape our vocabulary and thoughts.

As an example, Rene Girard was part of the Western philosophical social science brain trust from the 1960s through the 2010s, expanding on prior social theories and developing new theories on why humans do what they do. One theory that he felt was not sufficient (of course, his mimetic theory was better) but took hold around 1970 was the concept of "post-structuralism," meaning that there are no absolutes, no great truths, and understanding objects (people) required studying not the objects but the systems of knowledge (post-colonialism, ethnic studies, cultural studies, religious studies, feminist studies, etc), that produced those objects.

This led to the proliferation of university studies, a cultural decentering in society for many people, and polarization among and against the subgroups of people who identify with a particular group. Girard's theory of human behavior requires people to be competitive with each other, and no matter how civil the testing of ideas is at the start, unless there is a release valve or transcendent exit, it ultimately leads to anger, hate, violence, and scapegoating as a social release. Then, the cycle repeats. If there is no social release valve, then war.

Girard's upbringing in the shadows of the Palais des Papes in Avignon, his experience as a university student in occupied France, and the vicious mob behaviors he witnessed in Paris after France was liberated shaped much of his thoughts on mimesis and his life work in academia for the next 50+ years.

In the past 10+ years, on multiple occasions, I have unsuccessfully tried to read Girard's work at a depth that would provide an intuitive understanding of his thoughts. While I believe I grasped his theories superficially as a layperson, I did not find them easily accessible. After reading "Evolution of Desire," I am refreshed by Haven's explanations and observations, which have given me the keys to unlocking Girard's work to a greater depth. I will redouble my efforts and reengage with his writings and my world as I find what I believe is a truism in his thoughts. We are caught in limbo between the old world of violence and retribution and a new world of nonretaliation and forgiveness. A new world that admittedly seems beyond our capacity.

[Garret Macko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I once read somewhere (if my ever-so-fallible memory serves me correctly, that somewhere was the introduction to Neil Postman’s “Boring Ourselves to Death.”) that the dystopian futures of Orwell and Huxley can be distinguished from one another in the following manner: in Orwell’s “1984,” he argues that what we hate and despise will be our undoing, whereas conversely in Huxley’s “A Brave New World,” our undoing arises, not from what we hate, but rather from what we want—from what we desire. In this way, Huxley’s reflection runs parallel to those of Girard’s mimetic theory, which, as Girard argues, is modeled and traced through all modes of human action and expression. Furthermore, Girard suggests that our desire isn’t even authentic, it is, as it turns out, imitative. The implications of this idea within the broader framework of Girard's theory and the structures of human action that it seeks to articulate are massive. When I meditate on ideas of this kind, I tend to either (1) feel like Wile E. The Coyote at the moment that he realizes that his legs are no longer spinning on firm ground, or (2) feel a deep sense of relief, like letting out an extended and deeply cathartic exhale.

If you're interested in learning more about Girard and looking for an introduction to his works as I was (and still am), I couldn't recommend this biography highly enough. If you're unfamiliar with Girard but are interested in theories that seek to understand the core mechanisms underpinning the destructive waves that have shaped and continue to shape our world, I once more recommend this biography. This, after all, was the subject of study to which he dedicated his life. And what better way to begin a study of this pursuit than by examining the story of the man himself.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ pg 36. Not only is the writing the opposite of electrifying, Haven has made the claim that 1.) the French intelligentsia turning their backs on Camus was the equivalent of modern cancel culture (if she just made the book about cancel culture and went full conservative rather than half conservative, this would have been much more interesting), that they disapproved b/c he spoke about Soviet gulags (which might be somewhat true) rather than the fact that he totally fell into the apolitical trappings of existentialism and 2.) that the poor treatment of French collaborators (which I'm not doubting that there were petty accounts of score-settling with folks who didn't deserve it) during the German occupation was EQUIVALENT to the white supremacists hounding Elizabeth Eckford, the young girl at the forefront of desegregation in the famous footage from Little Rock. Nazi collaborators and Elizabeth Eckford, united in a category at last... The thing stinks of depoliticization, of a sort of theoretical neutralization of politics, and regular everyday conservatism that might be liberalism...with stories of little Rene traipsing off to school to learn about Avignon peppered throughout, snippets of a chortle-inducing anecdote delivered to the author before a cozy fire. But what was I expecting? What indeed....

[Philip Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for me because it is like a keystone binding together all I have read by (and about) René Girard since first being introduced to his reality-shifting insights by Gil Bailie’s “Violence Unveiled”. I then began to read the Girard oeuvre in an unintentional random order. While I worked out the pattern in time, here, somewhat at the end of the journey, I return to the beginning and recognise it for the first time.
Haven has written a lovely book. Widely sourced, without bias, and with a real writer’s flair. Often I am asked which is the best book with which to start reading Girard. This may be a good choice, but be warned. Girard’s ideas require brain shifts that don’t come quickly. My advice: jump in anywhere and prepare for epiphanies.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cynthia Haven’s study of the life and work of Rene Girard is beautifully and thoughtfully written, scintillating and often moving, it is the fruit of thoughtful study and close friendship with the great man himself. Evolution of Desire illuminates this major thinker’s “unseen spiritual compass” (233) and convincingly emphasizes Girard’s recognition that “good mimesis” – the human imitation of Christ’s love -- offers a real exit from the vicious circle of envy. The reader comes away from the book apprehending the wholeness of Girard’s vision, and is grateful for the gift.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good biography of Girard, famous for his scholarly work on the darkness at the heart of human society — the mob mentality, the foundational role of the scapegoat, mimetic desire. These cryptic and shadowy things are all around us, ready to explode into appalling violence. Girard’s early life was lived in the shadow of the European disaster of the mid-20th century; after that, he was a quiet academic at American universities over a long and fruitful career. Haven’s biography is well worth reading, especially if you lack the guts to dive into Girard’s own dense work.

[John Braun · Rating 5 out of 5]

The growth of Girard

For anyone interest in Gerard’s work and thought, this book offers a satisfying portrait of Girard the man. Even though he can’t be completely separated from his life of thought and writing-none of us, after all live in separated cubicle-the sense of him comes through in the words of this book

[Germán · Rating 5 out of 5]

An invaluable aide to plan a systematic reading of Girard.

The author writes a biography with enough background on Girard's système that motivates the reading of his oeuvre.

Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended!

[Rene Rigal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Girard introduced me to one of the most provocative intellectual achievements I have witnessed. It has provided a challenging disruption of my previous frame of reference. His life and his work provides a new vision with which we can assess our life and our culture. Highly recommended!

[5greenway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really successful biography, playing life, context and ideas against each other to build a convincing, affectionate portrait of the man and a clear introduction to and assessment of his work.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good biography and substantive account of the development of Girard's ideas. Read Girard something by Girard first, like I See Satan Fall Like Lightning.

[Tomas Nilsson]

Stopped at page 26. This book wasn’t for me.

[Konstantin Bätz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction, but not critical of its subject or his work at any point.

[versarbre · Rating 5 out of 5]

really helpful - the author esp. made an effort to trace Girard's attitutdes in the midst of real historical events in his time.

[Benjamin Woody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best biography I have read in a long time.

[omnipresence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Хорошо, но можно

[amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked learning about Girard’s theories and history; I didn’t enjoy the author’s attempts to interpret and apply those theories herself or the disconcerting use of modern lingo like “living in his head rent-free.” Still a good background on Girard’s oeuvre.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contemplating Girard's life in his context was a great help in clarifying the development of his thought. I had been familiar with his anthropological interpretation of sacrifice in the ancient world and how its dynamic was changed by the life and death of Jesus.
This biography takes us beyond those theoretical interpretations, relating Girard's ongoing work in terms of his early experiences in France during WW II, his arrival in the racially divided U.S., and especially his life as an academic.

I found the description of Structuralism and Post Structuralism to be helpful to understanding his development. I liked that Haven demonstrated that Girard was an original thinker, out of tune with academic styles of his time. He was a seeker after truth rather than a rising star in one discipline or another.
She also shows how his personality may have contributed to his insight.

Application to where we find ourselves today in politics was very helpful and a relief in many ways.
I leaves me with a framework for understanding our time.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read! The author is such a good writer! In addition to a thorough, erudite and personal grasp of the subject, and the subject of the subject...she has a sure hand in conveying her encounter with it all to the reader who comes to this book in search of deepening acquaintance with both the person Rene Girard and the person he sought to imitate.
Cynthia Haven, thank you for this work, and for the many "invisible accomplishments" you made in bringing it to print.