I have just finished “David & Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell, a book described as being about “Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants”. Rarely have I read a book that carried such resonance in our brave new world and that makes you sit up and think. It makes you question our world order and how we behave as human beings. I loved it. It’s not perfect, some bits are a little repetitive, some arguments you could find fault with, but in general it is a book everyone should read. It will make you want to be a better person and it challenges you to look at the world differently.
He starts by describing the epic battle between a shepherd and a warrior and about how the unexpected happened owing to David playing to his strengths rather than battling Goliath “as an equal”. “So much of what is beautiful in the world comes from the shepherd, who has more strength and purpose than we ever imagine”.
He analyses whether class sizes are in any way more beneficial for children if they are as small as possible and what it means to be dyslexic. He looks at small groups and the battle The Impressionists had to be recognised. Time and time again he highlights a different way of looking at the world and points out how true progress in the world is often made by those who are “disagreeable” for whatever reason. Generally he focuses on how a childhood trauma can result a new found strength that leads people on to great things and that “out of that despair rises an indomitable force”.
“Losing a parent” is considered to be one of the most devastating thing that can happen to a child, but he has found evidence that even if your father has committed suicide “and you suffer from a childhood so unspeakable that you push it to the further corners of your memory – and still some good can end up coming from that”. He discusses medicine and the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King and the war. Each time he makes develops a very personal argument as to how each and every person made their mark through difficult early circumstances.
There is so much in the book to consider and something for everyone to mull over.
Read it.
It is moving and nourishing and challenges both the heart and the mind. It makes you view “failure” differently, makes you consider how “an advantage can sometimes be a disadvantage and that a disadvantage can sometimes be an advantage.
It’s a little guy beats big guy feel good story and it makes you think. Very readable indeed and certainly will provide good fodder for a very good argument or five.
