David Brooks, The Road to Character

Excerpt

The Road to Character is a deeply flawed if interesting book. The problems start with its title. A reader expecting a journey of sorts will be disappointed because Brooks does not offer one. There will be no highways of virtue or byways of personal excellence. The choice in title is baffling, but so are many other choices Brooks has made—from the subjects of his chapters to the “characters” he wishes to study to his undisciplined, telling use of prose. Though not a good book, The Road to Character is not a bad book. Brooks poses an important question—whether the grasping, meritocratic way of life that shapes much of our self-appointed elite is the right way to live—and responds, “no.” Why not? Brooks founders in answering, but his effort nonetheless points the way. …