The Art of Possibility, by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander aims “to provide the reader the means to lift off from the world of struggle and sail into a vast universe of possibility”. Rosamund is a family therapist and conflict resolution specialist, while Ben is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, but the book is targetted primarily towards a business management audience.
While some readers might see the book as opening a world of possibilities, others are likely to see it more as a collection of optimistic clichés. The book opens unpromisingly for the jaded reader with a regurgitation of the old story about drawing four straight lines which pass through all dots in a square array of nine dots – this requires drawing outside the square. One of the chapters suggests that you should give every student an “A” for their work in advance, and another suggests that you should take yourself less seriously.
“Like the person who, mindless that she has all of nature in her fingertips, blocks the expression of the life force, so does the musician interrupt the long line of passion when she limits her focus to the expression of personal emotion, local color, or harmonic events.” Some people might find this type of prose inspirational; others would find it turgid. While I found many of Ben’s orchestral anecdotes interesting, the book as a whole did not appeal to me. Perhaps I should have given it an “A” before reading it.