Name: Critique of Everyday Life
ISBN: 9781781683170

Henri Lefebvre

Henri Lefebvre's three-volume Critique of Everyday Life is perhaps the richest, most prescient work by one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers.

Critique of Everyday Life

César Steven Toribio

I won't pretend to be qualified (yet) to write a proper and just review of this book. I will limit myself to say what it was to me: difficult, challenging, exciting, and fun. The first and third volumes are easier to read than the second, mainly because of the way Lefebvre wrote them, in plain language, Volume two on the other hand seemed to have more of an academic and philosophical tone that I could not always get or follow. The whole thing opened my mind to the everyday as I had not seen it before, as the main stage of events of life itself, where the good stuff happens, in some way or another. I am sure I will be riding this book again sooner than later, hopefully more prepared to comprehend contexts, terms and conclusions, and draw my own in a proper way.

That said, I recommend this reading wholeheartedly. Lefebvre develops themes that are still very much alive today, and he wrote about them in the 40s, 60s and 80s as if he were alive in 2015, seeing them unfold. For example topics related to identity, differentiation and particularities, that right away reminded me of identity politics and his 'preview' of the information age and how he'd thought it would unfurl (some of what he wrote seems almost prophetic).