On the one hand, Rieff is ruthlessly “rational” about the experience; even if his mother was tempted by faiths of various sorts, Rieff won’t take any “consolation in unreason.”7 But on the other hand, his questions attest to some sort of cross-pressure. “Am I to ascribe some special meaning to the intensity of her final years, as if somehow she had a premonition that her time was ending?” he asks. “Or is all of this just that vain, irrational human wish to ascribe meaning when no meaning is really on offer?”8 It’s not that he’s tempted by faith or toying with reenchantment; it’s that ruthless
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