The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery

by Adam Gopnik

Book Overview

For decades now, Adam Gopnik has been one of our most beloved writers, a brilliantly perceptive critic of art, food, France, and more. But recently, he became obsessed by a more fundamental matter, one he had often meditated on in The New Yorker: How do masters learn their miraculous skill, whether it was drawing a museum-ready nude or baking a perfect sourdough loaf? How could anyone become so good at anything? There seemed to be a fundamental mystery...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1324090758
• ISBN13: 9781324090755
• Release Date: March 2023
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Intellectual search for raison d’etre.

I put this book down after just a few chapters. This gentleman is very bright and educated but fails to engage in any meaningful discourse over genius. He seems to be looking for the formula of greatness but fails at every level. He’s an intellectual looking for real life. The book is awful!