Book Review: On the inconvenience of other people by Lauren Berlant

Abstract

On the Inconvenience of Other People by Lauren Berlant is a philosophical narrative about how we live, interact, and make decisions that end up defining how we relate in smaller and bigger social circles. To start with, Berlant sets the satirical tempo of the book in a 30-page-long prelude titled “Intentions,”with the phrase “hell is other people”(p. 26), borrowed from Jean-Paul Sartre’s play No Exit and Three Other Plays. This perhaps implies that despite us being masters of our own life choices, we end up being scrutinized and judged by others—hence leaving us in their inconvenience. The book is divided into three chapters “Sex in the Event of Happiness”(Chapter 1), “The Commons”(Chapter 2), and “On Being in Life Without Wanting the World”(Chapter 3). Finally, there is the coda “My Dark Places”(pp. 148–172), which serves as a continuation of the third essay, but quickly transitions from the “inconvenience”subject to the unbear- able. The book is rich in both content and form throughout all its sections, with Berlant cleverly interweaving different but nuanced social dynamics to invite the readers into the complexities of the world we live in.