PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Born in 1909 to a Jewish family in Paris, Simone Weil had a privileged childhood. An academic prodigy, she left a teaching career to become a factory worker in order to better feel and know the afflictions of the working class. Though drawn to pacifism, she went to Spain to fight the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. An agnostic, her hunger for beauty, virtue, and goodness was fed by her conviction that anyone can enter “the kingdom of truth” if only “he longs for truth and perpetually concentrates all his attention on its attainment.” She never conceived of the possibility of a “real contact, person to person, here below, between a human being and God” until one day “Christ himself came down and took possession of me.” Though she would remain religiously unaffiliated her entire life, the reality of this experience never left her. Simone Weil fled France when the Nazis invaded and joined the French resistance in London. In solidarity, she committed to eating the same rations as the men at the front. During the summer of 1943, she contracted tuberculosis and, weakened by malnourishment, she died within weeks.
An excellent introduction to Weil's writings and also a valuable guide and stimulus for cultivating a life in which intellectual and spiritual honesty are inseparable, and in which the difficulty of attaining them is seriously confronted. It is ideal for classroom use, for introducing a friend to Weil, or for revisiting her long after an earlier encounter to be reminded why she is such a compelling and challenging interlocutor. --Mark Shiffman, Front Porch Republic A brilliant, paradoxical figure....In an age of `inspirational' books without inspiration, her writing is unmatched for surprising, sometimes shocking, spiritual insight. --New York Times The only great spirit of our time. --Albert Camus The most truly spiritual writer of this century. --Andre Gide Love in the Void is a reminder to neophytes and the experienced alike that Weil's writing is meant to be concrete, accessible, and useful - more than simply ideas to ponder, but an invitation to change our lives. Plough has done an admirable job in assembling a condensed version of Weil's most pertinent writing. This is Weil burned down to her essentials. --Scott Beauchamp This beguiling book is a fine introduction to Weil's work. --Publisher's Weekly
