Book Review: The Circle of Simplicity

Title: The Circle of Simplicity 

Author: Cecile Andrews

Publisher: Harper Collins

Date: 1997

Length: 256 pages plus bibliography and acknowledgments

Other books by the same author: Slow Is Beautiful 

Quote: "People in simplicity circles discover that everyonecan simplif their lives in some way... Simplicity circles lead to both personal fulfilment and social change."

In 1989, Cecile Andrews offered a "voluntary simplicity workshop" at a community college.Four people came. In 1992 she offered the same workshop.A hundred and seventy-five people came. In 1997, this book didn't quite make the bestseller list, but it became popular with Green, frugality, and liberal readers.

In 1997, though people who shared Andrews' views about thrift, not being sucked into compulsive purchasing, and engaging with the real world, would hardly admit knowing what the Internet was. Page 82: "Some people have started Simplicity Study Circles on-line. To me, this cannot be. It's not a study circle if you can't laugh together, if you can't reahc over and touch someone's arm." 

Today, of course, there are online simplicity circles. In fact, there was even, for a while, a web site called cecileandrews.com. Cecile Andrews still doesn't have a Wikipedia page, as nearly all writers, living or dead, now have; she does have a handful of articles at resilience.org. But plenty of people who have read this book do prefer to connect online, so do you still need this book?

You do, if you enjoy reading. It's a good read, and a good referencewith lots of citations of other good books. 

What else do you get by buying the book? After a nine-page overview, 33 pages of the book review reasons why people are opting to simplify their habits rather than dress, buy, and spend to impress others. (How it worked for my generation, in practice, was later described in detail in a book called Bobos in Paradise.)

Pages 34-123 discuss some things people cut back or cut out of their lives when practicing simplicity, and things they do with their time and money, instead.

Pages 124-210 discuss ways to "build community." This part of the book is quite controversial, in a gentle goodhearted way. Andrews applies the concept of simplification to philosophical quesitons about ecology, health, spirituality, and politics, and airs some opinions with which some practitioners of simplicity don't agree. She endorses homeopathic approaches to personal health. Even in 1997 she had not reconsidered socialism, though most of my generation were shaken out of whatever faith we'd had in it in 1987.

You can practice simplicity, and bond with others in a simplicity circle, without agreeing with any of Andrews' opinions. Not only Republicans and fundamentalist Protestants, but also collectors of specific kinds of "stuff," people who depend on allopathic medicine, people who enjoy computers, people who want to celebrate our introversion as the gift it is, and so on, can simplify their lives as profitably as "limousine liberals" can. 

Pages 210-247 providke specific instructions for organizing your own simplicity circle. They're not restrictive; it's not a franchise. These are just tips on methods that have worked for existing groups, and how, and why.

Finally, pages 249-254 provide suggestions for further reading for simplicity circles. It's not exhaustive,. New books have come out; some old ones have become hard to find. Groups that want to stick together, reading and discussing books at weekly or monthly meetings, should love this part of the book too.

There are books and writers in the simplicity/frugality/Green category that are closer to my heart, and my practice, than this one. Richard J. Foster's Freedom of Simplicity, Wendell Berry's What Are People For, Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette, leap to mind. Walden, for pity's sake. Still, I've kept a copy of this book for more than twenty years. If this description interests you, you'll probably like the book too.