Optimism Paperback – March 1, 2011

I am a 74 year old male who has read a GREAT DEAL of biography which lays out personal belief. Optimism is a classic, without compare. Helen Keller thought deeply about life and the peculiar challenges of her own life. She explains credibly how a deaf blind person becomes an optimist. [She had as a child been stricken with blindness and deafness at 19 months of age; became a hellion with no sense of others or the world around her.] She and Rabbi Kushner (Why Bad Things Happen to Good People) wade into the swamp most treacherous to believers: If there is a good God, why is there monstrous evil? Keller like Kushner answers the question from personal experience with credibility. The questions remains for each of us to answer. Keller provides help in answering honestly and lovingly. Peter Castaldi

Helen Keller has always been a fascination, so in my search for readings about Optimism I was delighted to find this work! Even though it was written 100 years or so ago, it seems to come from such inspiration. The overall message is one clearly needed today. These are such radically different times in 2015! There are so many ways we live as though we are unable to see, hear, speak or communicate with each other at all. We take so little responsibility for having faith in the world and ourselves. And don't hold ourselves accountable for anything that requires much effort or commitment to the greater good of all. We seem to have forgotten how to be grateful for the fact we're alive! Helen Keller had a totally different take on things, for a good reason. This little book is a great reminder of how good life is and something to read often.

Her inspiring life story is remarkable enough, but only tells part of her accomplishments. She is a remarkably well rounded writer with a broad grasp of history, literature, philosophy, and theology and her indominable spirit communicates so well and clearly! Highly recommend!

This was a rip off. Cover is for the book, but inside is a guide to aromatherapy and a sunfish sailing guide instead. So unless you want those guides instead of Optimism by Helen Keller, I would not order this.

Man, I look forward to the day I can meet Helen in Heaven! What an awesome treatise on a life lived in victory over infirmity! This is a book that should be read in schools around the world.

What a blessing this woman was! I want to pursue her optimism. If Americans viewed the world the way she did what a continuing better place this would be. What has happened that we have now become so pessimistic?

enjoyed it very much

good essay