Written in the aftermath of quitting the drug, which she begin taking in college, this book expands on Schwartz’s New York Times Magazine article 'Generation Adderall' to examine attention as both a concept and an action, especially in our smartphone-obsessed era ... With fascinating research and illuminating interviews, this is ruminative, provocative, and discussion-worthy.
...a sprawling, comically unfocused study ... the book steps away from straightforward memoir and starts flailing, taking up whatever aspects of attention that can hold Schwartz’s own. The narrative caroms between the science of A.D.H.D. to the promise of psychedelics in aiding focus to wan descriptions that feel grafted from Wikipedia on the work of David Foster Wallace, Simone Weil and William James, all of whom were consumed with the difficulty and holiness of attention ... [Schwarz] tells us one thing, shows us another; we finish her book having gorged on trivia but finding basic questions unanswered ... Instead, pointless, pallid excursions pad out the narrative: generic, listlessly described psychedelic conferences and ayahuasca ceremonies ... celebrity anecdotes feel like gaudy bids for our interest — strange in a book that has, in its meandering way, argued for just the opposite approach.
The problem with having such a great title is that it’s a lot to live up to ... I enjoyed the memoirish opening chapters, and happily went along as she starts an intellectual exploration of her subject, delving into the work of William James and his peers ... The journalistic adventures are somewhat more problematic ... Attention is written from the perspective of the (mostly) recovered addict, and there is a wonderful moment that encapsulates what was lost by starting the drug, and then regained by going off ... When Schwartz turns her attention to the tech gods of the West Coast (not a group known for their sense of humor), my interest waned ... The writing gets a bit flat. I put the book down ... In the book’s last chapters, the personal reasserts itself dramatically ... In the last pages, the pineapple Life Savers per-line ratio happily jumps. After working through the drama of her father, she takes a magnificent if arduous train journey across India with her mother ... In this closing passage, the book’s subject...shines through.
Attention: A Love Story is Schwartz's quest for the point. It is an often lucid, sometimes hazy memoir-cum-meditation on the idea of attention. The sections on Adderall are undeniably the best ... Several chapters have the feel of half-finished thoughts, two in particular: a cautious, even prim, section on mind-altering drugs and a chapter on Schwartz's father, the longtime broadcaster Jonathan Schwartz, who was fired by NPR member station WNYC in 2017 due to allegations of inappropriate behavior ... I couldn't help but feel that what fails Schwartz is, in fact, her sustained attention. On a sentence level, Schwartz is brilliant, funny and clear, but she lacks the larger thematic clarity of, for instance, Jenny Odell's recent book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy...
A personal and professional study of the struggle with attention in an age of distraction ... Schwartz asks questions of singular significance: "Why are we so susceptible to all the escape routes our technologies offer us in the first place? What are we fleeing?" With a critical and open mind, the author assesses the works of such disparate writers as David Foster Wallace, Simone Weil, William James, and Aldous Huxley, and she applies no less rigor to exploring attention with such avatars of expanded consciousness as Stanislav Grof and Gabor Maté ... The author is unfailingly honest about her own addiction to the iPhone and her vulnerabilities and self-doubt. By personalizing her account, and her journey, she enhances the book's potency without diluting its authority ... Being attentive is an acquired skill. Schwartz helps us think deeply and clearly about what it offers us.
...an insightful hybrid of memoir and academic study on the subject of attention ... hankfully, Schwartz goes light on the overexposed subject of the internet’s effects on the attention span. When she does discuss this, it’s with thought-provoking research ... The narrative takes an odd turn near the end, as Schwartz recounts dealing with a family crisis with no particular bearing on the subject of attention, before visiting a spiritual retreat in Central America. Nonetheless, this is a rich inquiry into what it means to pay (and maintain) attention in a world increasingly permeated with distraction and interference.
