Constantin Boundas

A book review, if you will, can be a powerful tease for readers who anticipate extracting nuggets of insight from its parent source. It can also be—and often is—a way for the reviewer to bask in the glow of a good writer or, by the same token, to flaunt his own cleverness and sense of superiority at the expense of a struggling essayist. I never had conclusive evidence to hold myself immune to either of these temptations. This time, however, I am in a position—temptations notwithstanding—to render my services to interested readers, with the satisfaction that comes from knowing that the pains of composing a review have been fully redeemed by the pleasure of having read two books that made me think long and hard. May's and Hallward's books are very different from each other, in scope, ambition, and targeted readership: May chose to write an introduction to Deleuze—an introduction that could be read and appreciated even by those who know nothing, or very little, about Deleuze—and he did it with honesty, fidelity to the material he has been working with, and with the exquisite transparency and subtlety of his style. The result is one of the best introductions to the rhizome-Deleuze we have had that can be read profitably by beginners and Deleuze-aficionados alike.