More of an essay than a book, but so astute in its reasoning that Powys has managed to condense what could have been waffled about for much longer into seventeen pages. Reading this praise of the beatific makes it easy to see why Powys influenced so many other writers, in this pamphlet he has taken the subject of our uncomfortable memories and embellished the problem with reasoning to allow us to begin "forgetting", this small segment of prose could be considered part of a greater 'art of living', and the correlation Powys makes with art in the sense of creativity is a background theme to the piece. It's an interesting subject matter, examining those memories we have that cause us anguish, that are sour and bitter when we redress them in our mind, and what approach we can use to defuse them. He also ties in much about the acts of thinking and existing within this dilemma, and concludes his prose deftly with the nepenthe of sleep, and thus possibly trailing his thoughts on the matter to the remarkable qualities of imagination and dreams - which is speculation on my part but how I have interpreted the final paragraph.

In summary, this pamphlet is a cathartic read, and must be read again and again until it sinks in like a soothing salve to the spirit of being. ( )