Twenty years ago a friend told me to read Life Against Death. He said it changed his life. I read it and liked it but it didn't change my life. Recently I finally got around to reading this, his second book. I'm afraid I'm too old for any book to change my life, but I thoroughly enjoyed this provocative book. It is a series of meditations, inspired by a wide range of other thinkers who are referenced after each section,as opposed to the unified argument put forward in Life Against Death. As in that book, Freud is an influence, but so is Blake, Buddhism,Roheim, and Nietzsche, who may have provided the aphoristic format. Brown was one of the intellectual gurus of the Sixties, but unlike many others from that time, his ideas hold up thirty years later.

This is a profound and learned book that is experienced as much as read. I first found it in college and the reread was an equalling enlightening journey. With insights from Freud, Blake, and buddhist mysticism it destroys the Reality Principle and the traps of literal interpretation. It leads us to know the Silence behind the words.

Prof. Brown enters into the heart of why we do what we do with references to psychiatry, art, philosophy and history. Yet his extraordinary intellectual approach is emotionally liberating. The book is a demanding but giving book with pleasures reverberating for a lifetime of re-reading.

I love Norman O. Brown's Life Against Death. A must-read. And I'll let you in on a big secret. An undiscovered gem called THE IMMORTALIST MANIFESTO by ELIXXIR (available on Amazon) takes Brown's thesis to its rational, ultimate conclusion.

Find out why CORNEL WEST, HARVARD (NOW PRINCETON) philosophy professor calls the author Elixxir FIRST RATE! ORIGINAL...RAZOR-SHARP."

If indeed our fear of Death and our desire for Immortality are as unquenchable as Brown rightly points out, then we shall never reconcile with Death, The Immortalist Manifesto argues. But instead humanity will track it down as "the last enemy" to be conquered. Only when Death is vanquished shall we be free from the bondage of Alienation, Repression, and Oppression.

The Big Book we've been waiting for. Unlike Brown's book, which is great for intellectuals, The immortalist Manifesto has the intellectual prowess but also the potential to change the world. And as someone :) said, the point is not only to interpret the world but to change it!

An uncomfortable but still convincing argument about history and longing. Gorgeously written and well worth a return to.

This is not really a review - time is lacking. Just a strong recommendation. If the question "What is the human animal?" is on your mind, read this book! In my opinion, Life Against Death ranks among the most important modern contributions toward an understanding of the human condition. It is on the same short list as Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents and Camus' Myth of Sisyphus. Like these works and indeed the subject, it is not an easy read. I am ordering a fresh copy and looking forward to the introduction by Christopher Lasch which I have not read. I also recommend Norman O. Brown's other works - in particular, Love's Body and the collection of essays, Apocalypse And/or Metamorphosis. I first read Brown in the 1960s and revisit him often. There are those who dismiss Brown as a 1960s enfant terrible (Life was in fact written in the 1950s) but listen to them not!