A Simple Machine, Like the Lever

Written in the wake of the 2008-2009 financial meltdown, A Simple Machine, Like the Lever, in which Nicholas Allander details his attempts to get his life on track, at first seems a document of its particular cultural and economic moment. And yet Schneider's real subject-the ways in which the simple goal of living an ethical, self-directed life leads not only to conflict with society, but also with the self-is an issue every generation negotiates as it comes of age. Our everyday reality now...