Embracing the ordinary

"Nothing is less known than what seems familiar. The ordinary is always the exceptional in disguise. Everything happens when nothing is happening. It has always been difficult to appreciate everyday life, often devalued as dreary, banal and burdensome, and never more so than in a culture besotted with fantasy, celebrity and glamour. Yet many writers and artists have celebrated the ordinary, and many philosophers have explained the rewards of paying attention to the here and now. With characteristic will and earthiness, Michael Foley -- author of bestseller 'The Age of Absurdity' -- draws on the work of 'champions of the ordinary', such as James Joyce and Marcel Proust, to encourage delight in the oddity of the everyday world. With astute observation and subversive glee, Foley relishes such things as the banality of everyday speech, the complexity of everyday psychology, the marvels of consciousness and memory, the ludicrousness of snobbery, love and sex, and the pleasures of the everyday environments of city, office and home. It is all more fascinating, comical and mysterious than you think"--Publisher's description, back cover.