I read this book because my son is attending the Anasazi Institute in Arizona. I was hoping it would be helpful but it's very cliche and I'm quite sure that if the Arbinger Institute had the answer to world peace, someone would have stopped the end to "warring hearts" by now.
The Muslim and Jew character coincidentally lose their fathers coincidentally due to the Mideast Conflict. The main character, Lou, is an artificial composite character who is gruff, successful, steady, but clueless about feelings. His long-suffering wife is under-appreciated but patient and kind. In a breakthrough moment she admits to feeling some resentment for certain things such as being alone while giving birth when hard-working Lou was at a business meeting; having a son who is a delinquent and a few other tales. She is the wife in Father Knows Best and the humor is canned. The reader is supposed to chuckle and be heart warmed when surprisingly, Lou sees the error of his ways as the result of the Muslim and Jew supposedly literally having the answer to world peace.
Another breakthrough moment is when Lou stubbornly realizes he shouldn't treat people at objects. The caricatures of the homeless people in the book were particularly offensive.
If you liked The Secret, you will think this book is an achievement. Anyone with a BA degree in English could have written it, and maybe someone else should with more textured, complex and genuine characters than the "bushy-haired" Jew. I found the book had subtle racist and elitist views and for this reason it's disturbing. It also doesn't do justice to the roles women play in a family, so for that reason it came across as sexist to me.
Whether you like this book will likely depend upon how much and often you read and whether you buy into sterotypes.Get more detail about The Anatomy of Peace.
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