I wrote a good deal of text about my perceptions on Stoicism, eventually realizing that I should focus on the book and keep what I wrote for a more appropriate place.

I’d like to disagree with myself and boast, in a very un-stoic way, that this book is chewed philosophy and therefore inferior to the canonical texts. But reading a contemporary fellow’s take on the subject spared me a lot of brain processing power. Marcus Aurelius’ texts, for instance, were personal notes to himself so that they don’t necessarily follow a logical sequence, and he almost certainly didn’t intend to publish them. Therefore, he gave a very stoical damn to conciseveness and writing style. Irvine has made a wonderful job converting the old fellows’ teachings to a more palatable, modern speech.

This book gently introduces the reader to the philosophers of ancient Rome and Greece and attempts precisely what the title promotes: to be a guideline to the good life, i.e. pursuing tranquility above all. How? Avoiding negative feelings. Yep. Although I wholeheartedly doubt that feelings avoidance is humanly possible (and I bet a whole lot of cognitive-behavioral therapists are with me), Irvine reviews stoical techniques to help you with the task, such as negative visualization (“it’s bad, but it could be worse!”) and minding only what’s under your control. While the latter makes sense and is constantly repeated among therapy circles, I can’t see how the former won’t cause more anxiety than good. But to each its own. In the end, it’s an interesting book and Irvine knows his thing, but if you suffer from depression, or you’re just sad at something, I say you’d rather look for support elsewhere.