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We Learn Nothing: Essays and Cartoons

by Tim Kreider (Goodreads Author)

4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 · rating details · 345 ratings · 85 reviews

In We Learn Nothing, satirical cartoonist Tim Kreider turns his funny, brutally honest eye to the dark truths of the human condition, asking big questions about human-sized problems: What if you survive a brush with death and it doesn’t change you? Why do we fall in love with people we don’t even like? What do you do when a friend becomes obsessed with a political movement...more

Hardcover, 240 pages

Published June 12th 2012 by Free Press

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Feb 02, 2013 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, america, literary, literature, non-fiction, biography, humour

"Fourteen years ago, I was stabbed in the throat. This is kind of a long story and less interesting than it sounds....After my unsuccessful murder I wasn't unhappy for an entire year."
This first essay, Reprieve, is a short reflection on how his outlook on life changed afterward. His first year was a feeling of euphoric escape from death, but this becomes submerged by the everydayness of life. That one was my favourite.
Family relationships, friendships with current friends, defriended friends, lo...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Heidi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fabulously irreverent...
“Most of my married friends now have children, the rewards of which appear to be exclusively intangible and, like the mysteries of some gnostic sect, incommunicable to outsiders. In fact it seems from the outside as if these people have joined a dubious cult: they claim to be much happier and more fulfilled than ever before, even though they live in conditions of appalling filth and degradation, deprived of the most basic freedoms and dignity, and owe unquestioning obedie...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Richard Newton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: thinking-about-life

I bought this book after coming across one of Kreider's articles and enjoying the combination of depth with light hearted fun. This is a very personal book - and without knowing any of Kreider's other writing, seems to me to be at that point in the writer's life in which he sees the world as more complex and tries to find a point of balance between contending pressures. I hesitate to say - but this seems to be mature writing and thinking.

All of the essays are enjoyable, although not all are of q...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Margie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Margie by: Nancy

Shelves: collections, nonfiction-other

Sister Nancy gave me a copy of Nancy Pearl's review along with this book for Christmas. The review sounded so good that although I was still mid-Plutocrats I thought I'd read one of these essays and then get back to my "real" reading.

I read it straight through.

The joy of this book is, in part, that the topics into which Kreider delves are largely mundane and easy to relate to. He takes events and experiences which are remarkable (like being stabbed in the neck, meeting his half-sisters when he...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Charles Moody rated it 5 of 5 stars

Like some of the other reviewers, I first became aware of Tim Kreider because of his June 2012 New York Times essay, The Busy Trap. I purchased his latest book, We Learn Nothing, but after skimming online some of his caustic cartoons and political commentary, I was not expecting to like it very much. By the time I was two essays into We Learn Nothing, though, I was deeply thankful that I had not passed on this gem of a book.
His essays arrest your attention in part because they trick your expe...more Like some of the other reviewers, I first became aware of Tim Kreider because of his June 2012 New York Times essay, The Busy Trap. I purchased his latest book, We Learn Nothing, but after skimming online some of his caustic cartoons and political commentary, I was not expecting to like it very much. By the time I was two essays into We Learn Nothing, though, I was deeply thankful that I had not passed on this gem of a book.
His essays arrest your attention in part because they trick your expectations. In the first essay Kreider relates a near-death experience but then explores how much it HASN’T changed him. In the next, The Creature Walks Among Us, he starts with the news story of the jilted astronaut who reportedly drove across the country wearing a diaper and armed with pepper spray to confront her rival, and explains why, against a national rush to sneer at her conduct and dismiss it with late-night monologue jokes, he (Kreider) found himself empathizing with her. By the end of his essay, you are convinced that (1) the line separating you from such a desperate step is thinner than you might want to admit, but (2) maybe that’s not such a bad thing – what may be most disturbing about these occasional frightening glimpses of unmoored human passion is their scarcity.
Perhaps because I’m at a similar stage of life, I find Kreider’s essays most touching when he muses on how his life has changed as he’s reached his mid-40’s. Has he gained wisdom, learning how to better navigate relationships and maturing beyond self-destructive drinking? Maybe, he seems to say, but his feelings about these changes are far too equivocal for this to be the straightforward moral of his writing. Rather, his essays – some very funny, most somewhat sad, all beautifully written – give a poignant reckoning of what’s been gained and what’s been lost, and invite the reader to raise a sympathetic toast of self-recognition. There’s no bitterness, but rather the somber and close camaraderie of a quiet last drink before closing time. Here is a sample:

“But at other times I worry it [being cautious about having your heart broken] may be permanent. Maybe we have a finite capacity for falling in love that gets depleted with age. Or maybe romantic love is an affliction of adolescence, like acne or a passionate ideological investment in pop songs. It’s mostly a relief to be free of it, like not waking up hung over. At those moments when I’ve felt myself starting to relapse—waiting for someone to call who wasn’t going to, that familiar helplessness clutching my gut—I’ve recoiled like a recovering alcoholic waking from a dream of being blacked-out drunk, relieved and thankful that he’s still sober.
But sometimes this life starts to feel grudging and dutiful. I’m clear-eyed again, but the world looks lusterless and dull. I can understand why schizophrenics stop taking their meds. I’m functioning and accomplishing things; everyone approves of my behavior and agrees that I seem happier; I’m not embarrassing my friends with any histrionic displays. But I also know that all around me the air is full of songs too beautiful for me to hear. Sometimes I’ll see a pair of electric-blue damselflies coupled in flight, and I remember how it felt to be weightless.”

That’s writing.
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Aug 03, 2012 Bill Breedlove rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an interesting collection of "essays" and cartoons related to the topics covered. I do not think I have ever seen any of Mr. Krieder's cartoons before reading this book. The back cover has some impressive star-power blurbage--Judd Apatow, Richard Russo, etc.--to help convince skeptical browsers of the greatness within. The reason I put quotation marks around "essays" is I am not entirely certain what these selections would qualify as technically, but I guess "essays" is close enough. To...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Davida Gypsy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Tim Kreider spent years (decades) as a barroom philosopher. He has come out on the other side as something of a barstool sage. The debauchery and fecklessness is still there, but it is tempered with wisdom and a touch of weariness. I inadvertently conjured images of Denholm Elliott in Scorchers. Kreider has reached a place where he has learned something, despite the title, and wants to share his truths. He knows that they may not be your truths, but this was hard-earned wisdom and he wants to im...more Tim Kreider spent years (decades) as a barroom philosopher. He has come out on the other side as something of a barstool sage. The debauchery and fecklessness is still there, but it is tempered with wisdom and a touch of weariness. I inadvertently conjured images of Denholm Elliott in Scorchers. Kreider has reached a place where he has learned something, despite the title, and wants to share his truths. He knows that they may not be your truths, but this was hard-earned wisdom and he wants to impart it.

Kreider has had the joy and burden of extensive personal freedoms and lacked many of the boundaries that define “regular society.” This has fueled him creativity as an artist. From the essays it also sounds as if the lack of boundaries have driven him to no man’s lands from time to time. The recognition that the greatest, most inescapable boundary looms closer as we get older seems to have given him focus and insight.

This collection starts with an account of Kreider’s stabbing, but sets the tone of the book by saying, “You’d like to think that nearly getting killed would be a permanently life-altering experience, but in truth it was less painful, and occasioned less serious reflection, than certain break-ups I’ve gone through.” Essays discuss his impassioned and tortuous love-life, excessive drinking, relationships with friends that seem more complicated than his relationships with women, forcing himself to view the Right as more than 2-dimensional caricatures, and the peaks and valleys of family. I particularly enjoyed “An Insult to the Brain,” an essay that intersected Tristam Shandy and his mother’s illness and “Chutes and Candyland,” which described his support of a close friend and mentor’s gender transition, causing him to reassess gender bias he didn’t know he had.

As a series of essays, We Learn Nothing is surprisingly tight and the disparate themes actually knit together forming a cohesive collection. For those of us who read The Pain in Baltimore’s City Paper and in mini-comic form, the essays offer critical commentary and analytic study of his earlier cartoons, sometimes stopping to describe the figurative car wrecks that led to their creation. Recommended.
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Jun 23, 2012 Kirsti rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Kristin, Jan McGill

Shelves: anger, arts-and-photography, comics-graphic-novels, drama, essays, humor, imagination, memoir, nonfiction, philosophy, sarcasm

I was asking myself, Who is Tim Kreider, and why did I order this book? Then I read the beginning of the first essay, "Reprieve": "Fourteen years ago, I was stabbed in the throat. This is kind of a long story and less interesting than it sounds. . . . After my unsuccessful murder I wasn't unhappy for an entire year."

And I thought, Oh yeah, THIS guy!

Here is what else Mr. Kreider had to say in essays about politics, friendship, "outrage porn," human fallibility, and discovering in his early 40s th...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Christine rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a collection of personal essays and cartoons by NY Times columnist Tim Kreider. I really loved this book and not just for its use of em dashes and colons. I thought Kreider was completely unique, profound, darkly funny, and incisive. It is the only book for a long time where I have read passages to my husband. It isn't for everyone, but I'm pretty sure that if I met Kreider in person, I would follow him around like a groupie, which would really bug and fascinate him at the same time.

Here...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Mary (BookHounds) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, from-publisher-author

MY THOUGHTS
LOVED IT
I don't know how anyone can turn being stabbed in the neck and almost dying funny, but Tim Kreider does! I was touch by his poignant remembrances and descriptions of his attack and the aftermath. Specifically, how he thought up new ways to describe the incident and how the "incident" became it's own entity. He is best known for his satirical cartoons during the Bush era and there are drawings that illustrate his points throughout the book, but I really needed a magnifying glas...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Meghan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, memoir

3.5. A man in his forties, a political cartoonist who lives in New York and has never married, tells stories about his friends and his life. The writing in this is equal to the best of David Sedaris, although his style is a little more verbose, a little less punchline. But I didn't care for the cartoons at the end of each chapter or his newspaper editorial page drawing style.

I loved the essay about getting stabbed, the essay about losing touch with his Peak Oil obsessive friend, as well as his...more

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May 14, 2013 Derek rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the interests of full disclosure I have to say that I received a copy of We Learn Nothing free as a Goodreads giveaway. Having read the book I am staggered at my good fortune.
Kreider's essays range from the deeply personal to more generalized ruminations on The Way We Live Now. They are all unflinchingly honest and thought provoking. However, they are also deeply funny with a self-deprecating and lacerating wit that somehow manages to avoid being caustic.
The personal essay collection field is...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Shay rated it 4 of 5 stars

In We Learn Nothing, writer and political cartoonist Tim Kreider delivers a humourous book of clear-sighted anecdotes and cartoons about, in his own words, “dark, hilarious universal truth[s].” This is a tall order to fill, but Kreider is indeed able to make stories taken from his own life apply to the world at large. Appended to each essay is a cartoon in which Kreider caricatures himself with the same brutal honesty with which he is known for rendering former President George W. Bush. The best...more In We Learn Nothing, writer and political cartoonist Tim Kreider delivers a humourous book of clear-sighted anecdotes and cartoons about, in his own words, “dark, hilarious universal truth[s].” This is a tall order to fill, but Kreider is indeed able to make stories taken from his own life apply to the world at large. Appended to each essay is a cartoon in which Kreider caricatures himself with the same brutal honesty with which he is known for rendering former President George W. Bush. The best of these is the meta-cartoon in which Kreider chronicles the story of the story about the time he was stabbed in the neck. The cartoons are funny and enjoyable, but few besides “The Stabbing Story” truly serve to enhance the narrative. They do, however, give a comical physical presence to the people Kreider has been describing. He is a good cartoonist, but he may just be a better writer.

Kreider is an amusing and pointed cultural observer who calls things as he sees them. We all wish we could be this matter of fact about the ups and downs of life and our own personal failings and political biases. Known for his unabashedly anti-Bush cartoons, Kreider delivers a surprisingly level headed essay about the left/right divide in American politics, which is perhaps the highlight of the book (“When They’re Not Assholes”). Kreider attends a Tea Party rally after a period of purging himself of politics following the end of his job as a political cartoonist and comes face to face with a former student who is now one of the organizers of the rally. His illusion of impartially is further smashed when a Tea Partier calls him a “Moby”, which turns out to mean Tea Party Poseur.

Although Kreider is at his best on home ground, discussing political issues, he is also an astute observer of the social “politics” of personal interactions. His essays cover the loss of three friends—one dies, one stops calling him back, and the other he defriends due to an obsession with peak oil—the subtle changes in his relationship with his friend, novelist Jenny Boylan, after she undergoes gender reassignment, and the forging of new relationships with two half sisters he didn’t know he had. These stories challenge our assumptions about mental illness, gender and what it means to be family.

Kreider never seems to be trying too hard, and yet is funny even when the situation shouldn’t be humourous at all. If you enjoy cynical essays in the tradition of David Rakoff, We Learn Nothing is an excellent pick.

http://shayshortt.wordpress.com/2012/...
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Aug 06, 2012 Paula Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found Tim Kreider through his NY Times essay on busyness, which was just perfect. I did a little digging around the web, found his cartoons, and thought: "Oh, Wow. This guy is way to the left of me politically. And he seems rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth angry, to boot." I almost didn't buy the book, expecting a screed. And yet, that essay . . .

So I took the plunge and I'm so glad I did. The essays are funny and sad at the same time, and in the best way possible. Many of them have to deal with t...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Tim Vermeulen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Krieder's scathing, ruthless political cartoons were the balm that soothed my brain during G-Dubya's Reign of Terror, but anything that funny comes with a price, and for Krieder it was his own well being (as he mentions briefly in the book). We may have all but lost one of America's greatest political commentators but at least we now have Tim Krieder the essayist and (occasional) cartoonist, and that isn't too shabby either.

Oddly enough much of the book can be considered a psudoeulogy for Kreide...more

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Oct 14, 2012 Christopher rated it 5 of 5 stars

Beautiful prose and human insights, this book has an interesting combination of relatively exotic stories and tales in which it's very easy to put yourself in the author's shoes.

Tim Krieder's writing style, with its deep introspection and complete self-honesty, is refreshing. He's honest about his own character flaws, his concerns interacting with others, and how these attributes of himself have changed over time. The book touches on the concepts of family, gender, fanaticism, politics, and huma...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Vaidya R rated it 4 of 5 stars

First came across Tim Kreider's writing through the NYTimes blog post: The Referendum. I've usually followed his blog posts accidentally. The really good ones that stayed in my mind longer turned out to be by him (I barely notice the author's name most times).

'We learn nothing' is a superb collection of essays. He writes mostly about things that are common, that we observe and experience in our lives. Parents growing old, 'defriending', the eternal seeking of happiness, different kinds of frien...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Claudia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Really very good; funny and thought-provoking at the same time, with occasional moments of eloquence. Really, all you can ask for from a book of essays--plus cartoons!

Weirdly, several of these essays are pieces I could almost have written (if I had talent, natch), in that Kreider is espousing ideas I share and thoughts I've had, particularly when discussing politics and the simultaneous crying need for and difficulty of bipartisanship in the US these days. This is weird because we seem to be two...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Ilaniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

The thing I liked most about this collection was how thoughtful it was. Kreider isn't afraid to go back and forth on a position, weighing thoughts from many angles, and he also isn't afraid to let a conclusion be open ended. I think it's quite possible to take something very different out of each tale presented in the essays than what he himself took from it, and I also think that he wouldn't be unhappy about that.

My only complaint with the book is that the small size of the printing makes a few...more

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Nov 30, 2012 Robbins Library rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: jenny-recommends, nonfiction

Tim Kreider is a writer and political cartoonist. Unmarried in his early 40s, he has a unique perspective on the "traditional" life path. He is insightful, thoughtful, articulate, and at times hysterically funny. We Learn Nothing was one of Nancy Pearl's Favorite Books of 2012. Kreider also writes for the New York Times Opinionator blog.

"He told me once...that I was a better person than my beliefs. This is one of the things we rely on our friends for: to think better of us than we think of ourse...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult

Fourteen essays, some previously published elsewhere, plus cartoons from Baltimore's City Paper and new illustrations by an irreverent commentator. Kreider's essays are often political but the best and most moving ones are about friendship and family. And they are unusual: adjusting to a friend's change of gender, the pain of being "unfriended" in the old-fashioned, social sense, dealing with mentally ill friends and relatives, and his surprisingly strong feelings for half-siblings he never knew...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, non-fiction, cartoons, library-book, iu-libraries, other-campus-library, wishlist

I couldn't handle Tim Kreider years ago when I first encountered him. Though he has since calmed the rage monkey within, he's most well known for spending eight years of his life eviscerating the Bush administration -- eight years when I was still on the fence about politics. I have, however, always appreciated the piece he did comparing Actual Jesus to American Jayzzus. My opinion there has never been ambivalent.

His website is amazingly low-tech, showing a mind clearly more interested in having...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Jack rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a really rewarding read. I became aware of Tim Kreider by reading his essays in the New York Times ("The Busy Trap" being the first of many I have enjoyed).

He is an excellent writer, and very funny. Kreider is a strong observationalist - sensitive, reflective and thoughtful. Despite his strong personal beliefs, Kreider has accepted that he doesn't have all the answers. More than anything he is refreshingly human. There were so many points in this book that struck me while reading.

Kreider...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jenny by: Meg Thompson, Ben Apatoff

Shelves: essays, 2012-challenge

Nearly everything he writes makes me want to stand up and cheer. Quietly.

Quotes

He told me once...that I was a better person than my beliefs. This is one of the things we rely on our friends for: to think better of us than we think of ourselves. It makes us feel better, but it also makes us be better: we try to be the person they believe we are. (p. 45, The Czar's Daughter)

I understand now that a lot of what I felt...was the ache that young adults, still unformed and adrift and very much aware of...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, humor, nonfiction, sociology

I didn't expect to like this collection of essays as much as I did. Maybe it had to do with a recent break-up and a certain openness to hearing what Kreider said about relationships, about connecting with people, about heartbreak and being young and growing up. Based on his political cartoons, I wouldn't have ever picked up this book, but I would have missed out on a satirical, sarcastic, funny, and poignant collection of essays that talked about varied subjects, from the Tea Party, being friend...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Sarah Schultz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, rebecca-allyn

At points I felt like he was writing thoughts that only I have had in my head! Kreider is so spot on--and so honest--about our secret human thoughts. His first essay about "not changing" after being stabbed was both hysterical and so relate-able. I also loved how he described his friends with children, and his discussion of how people that are so deeply a part of your life can just cease to be your friend. Some parts were a little dry (or beyond me, perhaps!) or I would have given it 4 stars.

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Aug 12, 2012 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This is one of those books I read from time to time, where I start it one night and finish it the next day.

But this is also one of the very few books I can think of that will make you a better person for having read it. Not that I think I'm a better person.

Oh, hell. Just read this book. Tim Kreider draws the way I wish I could draw, but he writes even better than that.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT: I just read it again. I honestly wish I could put this book into the hands of every single person I love. It'...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this eclectic little book. The author is a fun and interesting and honest writer. These essays which reflect on his life, helped me think about my own life and helped me, a bit, understand the life of the world around me. He writes with insight and energy that was both fun and educational. The opening chapter about his reflections upon his “failed murder” to the second to the last essay about his biological family (he was adopted) give real insights to the human condition. I’m gla...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Sean rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think it will be harder to read a better book this year. Hilarious and yet touching all at the same time. I would say that its written from the point of view of a realist. Someone who sees faults in others, but also relates them to himself in that he has the same faults, maybe even worse than others. The other characters in his stories I can find in my family and friends which makes me like it even more. (Thank goodness for reading this on a Kindle. I had to look up about 100 words used in thi...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics, essays

This is probably my favorite book of 2012. Tim Kreider is an under-appreciated cartoonist who has grown into an under-appreciated essayist. Kreider's writing is a little anachronistic. He uses longer, more ornate sentences than is fashionable, and he's not afraid to reference the classics. Now I'm making him sound pretentious. He is not! His writing is funny, and sad, and self-aware. As a bonus, you get some of his cartoons, too.

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“The Soul Toupee is that thing about ourselves we are most deeply embarrassed by and like to think we have cunningly concealed from the world, but which is, in fact, pitifully obvious to everybody who knows us.” — 4 people liked it

“I've demonstrated an impressive resilience in the face of valuable life lessons, and the main thing I seem to have learned from this one is that I am capable of learning nothing from almost any experience, no matter how profound.” — 3 people liked it

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