When Words Fail Us: Truth Beyond Time (Stan Grant, NewSouth)

In When Words Fail Us, Stan Grant steps fully into his role as a philosopher and public thinker after walking away from a long career in journalism. Following the turbulence of the Voice referendum debate, he chose to “create some soft spaces to put my soul to rest”. Even as he acknowledges that words are corruptible, his move away from the daily churn of media feels as much a gift to readers as it is to himself. Grant, a proud Wiradjuri man, invites readers into a quieter space beyond the noise of modern life. He spends time with Plato, Simone Weil, the composer Jankélévitch, Cormac McCarthy, Thom Yorke, the Gallagher brothers, Aquinas and Jesus Christ, among others. What emerges is the fruit of a life shaped by reflection. Instead of talking, he listens. Confronted with the indefensible racism he endured as a journalist, Grant turned to his library, to theology and to philosophy. His prose is probing and playful. At times, it wanders into oblique – perhaps subjective – connections, yet his command of those ideas is generally unimpeachable. The book is, in many ways, a love letter to Christianity and to the persistence of faith after Nietzsche’s death of God. For some unbelieving readers, this may grate, but Grant leaves room for genuine conversation. Away from the “icy pandemonium” of a media-driven world that is only speeding up, Grant sits under a tree, near a river, surpassing the noise and asks: “What are you going through?” Readers who enjoyed Grant’s Murriyang will enjoy this book.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Becca Whitehead is a features and content writer based in Naarm-Melbourne. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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