I confess I hadn't been a heavy reader in philosophy until I stumbled upon her. Her language is abstract and yet somehow extremely poetic at moments. I read Between Past and Future as if it were an up-all-night novel, and I think maybe because it felt like it was telling me things I needed to know in regards to the novel I'm working on now. One of the side benefits of reading her has been being able to see a lot of abstractions in practice on the ground afterward, stuff that was invisible to me before reading her. I hear people talk about certain books that changed their life. I don't have a lot of books that I would say truly changed my life in big ways, major ways--there are many that I just love, or that did change my life, but in smaller ways--but Arendt picked me up, turned me inside out, and then set me down again. The weird thing about it was, even while I was reading, I kept furrowing my brows, wondering, how the hell am I seriously enjoying this stuff?!? And then I'd turn a page.

I liked On Revolution, but I came to it after all of those other books I mentioned, so by then I had come across a lot of the same stuff she talked about in it, just in different contexts. Liked it, but the first three books I mentioned were the ones that blew me away.

Glad to hear this book may dovetail with some stuff you're working on. Two for Arendt. :)