Notes from Hampstead

Notes from Hampstead is a map to the late Nobel laureate's thinking, a triumphant compendium of aphoristic, enigmatic, and expository writings covering a characteristically diverse range of subjects: the significance of mythology and ethnicity, the nature of creativity, the extraordinary hold violence has on the twentieth century, literary history (one learns of Canetti's affection for Cervantes, Stendhal, and Gogol, and his adoration of Kafka), and, always, there is a fierce quarrel with death. Canetti draws on the troubled period following the death of his wife and the publication of his masterwork of social theory, Crowds and Power. An ambivalent interest in spiritualism also characterizes the collection: Canetti's conversations with Jesuits and Indian gurus, and his readings of Greek, Hebrew, and primitive myths give a kaleidoscopic view of the uses and abuses of religion.