Rating: 
Summary: Hope Springs Eternal
Review: Despite its saucy red cover and the bouncy lower-case fonts that adorn it and despite even its title, On Love is not a romance novel. It's more of an anti-romance novel. But not entirely. It's not a totally cynical perspective we come to see things from. Certainly, the narrator gets a little jaded with the whole love thing, but you'll figure out pretty quickly that he can't be trusted anyway, and-as his story unfolds-he learns and we have the opportunity to do so, too.The story's not unique. The events that unfold in the unnamed narrator's relationship over a few months aren't particularly striking; on the contrary, they're quite common. In fact, they're freakishly common. No, it's his meditations on love that draw us on. And yes, he does waffle on from time to time, but de Botton (and/or our narrator) does draw out some great moments for thought. He falls in love within the novel's first moments. So if not an anti-romance, then this is a reverse romance. The tracing of a falling out of love. Chloe is beautiful in a Kantian sort of way, rather than a Platonic sense, our narrator explains in some detail. He meets her on a flight back from Paris, and he spends a few pages just deliberating over the probability of his ever meeting her in the first place. Which he decides is quite slim. By which we already know he thinks too much. Which is something he and I have in common then. But never mind. That just means I can identify with our narrator. When his affair begins to run out of fuel, our narrator falls from those dizzy heights of love into a not-quite deadly spiral. But he learns from this experience, too, and the voice that results may, I suspect, be the voice of de Botton himself. Because in the end, that voice is a reasonable, though perhaps ironically hopeful one. De Botton is a strong, gifted, and intelligent writer. He was born the same year I was and he got this published when he was 24. Which means he wrote it when he was 22 or 23. Which makes me 1) sick with jealousy and 2) feel like a tremendously lazy bastard (I've published one measly short story at 30). On Love is quite funny, clinically sexy, pretty thought provoking and a little long in places. And hopeful.
Rating:
Summary: A charming and amusing philisophical take on love
Review: This book provided me with an amusingly familiar take on the quirky and illogical behavior one adopts while falling in and out of love. There is much focus on the silly little theories one derives from the depths of their heart and mind, and then they are transferred into a philosophical and intellectual framework, creating a charming juxtaposition between rational and irrational emotions stirred by love. Recommended to those who have loved and lost more than once.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Many Splendered Thing
Review: I enjoyed reading Mr. De Botton's non-fiction work, so I thought I should sample his fiction. Maybe I made a mistake in trying to read On Love as if it was a novel. There is the occassional poigniant comment regarding love and relationships that might allow this book to work as a "self-help" piece. But it certainly does not work as literature. This tale of love is basically a twenty page short story enveloped by two hundred pages of psycho-babble. The heroine, Chloe, is moderately interesting, but the narrator is an absolute bore. His endless analysis of all the minutia in the relationship borders on unbearable. I don't see how such a person could have a meaningful relationship with a goldfish, let alone another human being. If you are looking for validation of your sorrows, On Love might be a good read. However, if you are looking for an interesting story to read, I would look elsewhere. Steve Martin's Shop Girl might be a good alternative. On Love is the literary aquivalent of using an elephant gun to kill a mosquito!
Rating: 
Summary: All-Time Favorite
Review: I got this book from the public library when it first came out, directly after leaving a relationship. At the time, I knew nothing about the book; I simply wanted to wallow in my sorrow. I bought it for myself half way through reading my borrowed copy, and loved it so much, I bought it for 3 friends. In fact, 6-7 years later, I still recommend it to pretty much everyone I meet, and recently bought a new copy for a relative in the midst of multiple dating crises. This book hits the nail on the head when it comes to relationships. It explains the phases of a relationship through linguistics, philosophy, statistics and various other creative devices (including little diagrams and illustrations.) The author makes it apparent that even though everyone feels their situations are unique, that each and every person actually shares very similar human experiences. The book is extremely well-written, fresh and creative. It is an uplifting book as the situations and characters are very real, and it is also a great learning tool-- helping readers to better look at their own relationships of the past and present and see their strengths and weaknesses and to put things into perspective. Readers will find themselves laughing from the first pages of how the characters thinks he is "fated" or "destined" to meet this woman, and relate to it completely. By the end of the novel, readers will see that most relationships are not really "destined" but are simply pretty ordinary occurrences of two people meeting, being mutually attracted and taking things on a ride from there. Don't get me wrong, in no way does the book make the reader feel like an ordinary Joe, but everyone in it's audience will be able to relate to every aspect of the book, and share the very same emotions when and how the characters do. It is a gem of a novel. I have read it over and over again. I couldn't wait until his next book released, and although I have read each of du botton's books since, as well as many others, I have to admit that this is still my all-time favorite. To all of my old friends to whom I "leant" my personal copy of this novel to who never returned it-- I would love to have those hardcover first editions back! I am stuck with a pb!
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and heartfelt.
Review: Witty, erudite and insightful philosophical treatise on the joys and pains falling in and out of love. For anyone who has ever exasperated their friends with obsessive musings over the minutiae of a new-found, stale or failed relationship (and who among us has not?).
Rating:
Summary: The human's guide to romantic love!
Review: This book awed me. I marvel at Alain de Botton's attention to detail. He has unraveled the many mysteries of romantic love. And he does it with a great deal of wit and irony. A woman named Chloe on a Paris flight to London smites the nameless narrator, and by the time they reach the baggage claim, he knows he has fallen in love. From then on, Alain charts the different stages of love -- from the blissful beginning to the heart-wrenching ending. I have found some interesting things in this book, like the fact that one's attempt at being charming on a first date consists in not doing or saying a lot of things one would normally say or do. Having experienced this, I utterly agree with the author. In fact, this book helped me understand many things about relationships. I love the philosophies and the theories that were illustrated in his writing. This dissertation/novel is one of the most complex and most intellectually stimulating pieces of literature I have ever read. This is -- without a stretch of doubt -- the human's guide to romantic love. I strongly suggest that you read and reflect on the chapters in this novel. Believe me, you will love it!
Rating:
Summary: On, in, through, around...and all about LOVE!
Review: If readers don't want to think about love (or wince from personal recognition), they have no one to blame but themselves. De Botton's title serves as sufficient warning as to what this book is about. Young or old, straight or gay, anyone who has ever submitted to the experience of falling in love is bound to identify with either the narrator (who sounds remarkably like the de Botton of HOW PROUST CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE) or his beloved, Chloe. As I read this book--which includes chapters entitled "The Subtext of Seduction," "Marxism," "The Fear of Happiness," "Romantic Terrorism," and "The Jesus Complex"--I kept puzzling over de Botton's subtitle, "a novel." Was this tack something he chose as a way of preventing friends and family from offering advice and consolation (which are usually self-serving and misplaced), or as a way of preventing ex-girlfriends from seeing themselves in the relatively pleasing portrait he paints of Chloe? Whatever his intention, he has stetched the definition of the novel in an interesting way. The basic love story between the narrator and Chloe travels its predictable path in an uneventful, but quirky, way. Neither comes off as a villain or victim, though both can be quite nauseatingly cute or petty at times. Through it all they remain convincingly human and we are drawn into their foibles, insecurities, squabbles, and desires. In short, they "live" as fictional characters. Even the narrator's hyper-reflective attitude is not bothersome. These analytical reflections read like diary entries; but the reader has evidence that the narrator has the good sense not to let Chloe know how much time he spends THINKING about his feelings for her. And it is these reflections, after all, that make the novel such a fun and thought-provoking experience for the reader.
Rating:
Summary: You'll read it again and again and again....
Review: This is like an intelligent "Bridget Jones Diary" written from the male perspective. I bought this book on a whim (judged by it's cover)in February of 1996 and since then I've probably re-read it five or six times and loaned it out to dozens of girlfriends. With humor and intellect the book describes all the facets of love and the joy and pain being in love brings. If you have ever been in a passionate yet failed romance this book will bring some strong flashbacks. Even though that might not be highly desirable unless you're hopelessly nostalgic like me, it makes you realize that insightful and sensitive men go through much of what women go through during the evolution of a relationship. And that I found immensely comforting. I have all of Alain de Botton's works and I savor each and every one of them. To me he is pure genius.
Rating:
Summary: A minor Classic
Review: This book has been out now for about eight years and I was just given it by a friend; it strikes me it's a kind of minor classic of literature, that's going to have a sort of cult status, because it's not a book for everyone, and yet people who love it really LOVE it. It speaks directly to the heart. The author was a kid when he wrote it, all of 23, or even younger I guess because it takes time for a book to be published, and yet he was extraordinarily profound and perceptive. Sure, the book has some flaws, there are bits where you can see the author should have spent some more time; but it's really fascinating. Incidentally, I also recommend two other books by Alain de Botton: How Proust can change your Life (another cult book) and The Consolations of Philosophy
Rating: 
Summary: You gotta hate it to love it
Review: If there is anything this book did for, it was to create in me a complete hatred and despise for the narrator.It moved me to the point where my only desire was to meet this guy, slap him around a few times, and scream at him "BE A MAN, FOR CHRISSAKES! " But then again, isn't this what great books are supposed to do?
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