At first, Sean Hand's book appears to be quite amateurish, complete with textbook-style information boxes that tell the reader some basic information, such as who Plato and Aristotle were, and what words like "ontology" and "ethics" normally mean. It comes across as just another basic introduction to Levinas's philosophy.
Once you get past the amateurish look of the book, what you do find is a clear, clever, concise, and cogent account of Levinas's central ideas. This introduction to Levinas is particularly useful for a number of reasons. First, it considers Levinas's philosophical and Talmudic works and their interconnection. Second, Hand identifies the ethical significance of Levinas's understanding of art. Third, in the last chapter, Hand considers Levinas's place in contemporary philosophy by identifying a few "critical" thinkers who have offered interesting ways of approaching Levinas's philosophy: Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Marion, Tina Chanter, Alain Badiou, Judith Butler, and Slavoj Zizek. This book is a positive contribution to Levinas scholarship and serves as a handy guidebook that even Levinas's seasoned readers will enjoy and learn from.
