Guardian Review

It's tempting to read the works of the philosopher Slavoj Zizek just for the politics and waggish deconstructions of lowbrow culture, while letting the crunchy bits about Lacan and Hegel pass as so much vatic noise, but that would be to miss much. Sheehan's earnestly friendly little book, therefore, carefully explains the "objet petit a", the difference between "early" and "later" Zizekian accounts of "the real", and what ciuek takes from Kant and Lenin, before providing deft paraphrases of the main arguments (such as they can be discerned) in Zizek's major books, as well as some cute characterisations of their dramatic arcs. ("The rest of Tarrying with the Negative is like a set of gentle cooling down exercises after vigorous exertion.") At one point in this distressingly underpunctuated text I did feel like having a whip-round to donate the poor author some commas, but he has a reassuring tone and nice judgment. His exposition of German idealism, especially, provides a useful service for many of those preparing to tackle the large forthcoming volume that Zizek himself has tantalisingly described as his "boring book on Hegel". - Steven Poole It's tempting to read the works of the philosopher Slavoj Zizek just for the politics and waggish deconstructions of lowbrow culture, while letting the crunchy bits about Lacan and Hegel pass as so much vatic noise, but that would be to miss much. - Steven Poole.