I confess I kept delaying reading it because I'd had bad experiences with self-published books in the past and was afraid of yet another disappointment. But instead of being disappointed I was encouraged, energized, and entertained at the same time. I couldn't put it down! It is a smart, profound, and engaging book.

The setting is the year 2030 in America where the tendencies of political correctness, multiculturalism, victimology, and moral relativism have reached its logical conclusion. Every person is judged not on his individual merits, but according to his disability profile, which factors in race, gender, wealth, education, exposure to European culture, etc. The most powerful government agency is Department of Disabilities that assigns disability points. This leads to some ugly events and the breakup of society, when the most productive and qualified people become the real victims of the Disability Regime. In addition, terrorists - whom no one dares call terrorists - are suing their victims for the right to seize their identities along with their assets and professional careers.

It's not a humorous or satirical book. It's Atlas Shrugged meets 1984. But unlike Atlas Shrugged, there are no people left in the society who actually know the real history or have the ability to think rationally. None of the characters are free of the chains and the blinders of political correctness. And as the plot unfolds, they try to unravel the reasons for their predicament using the limited intellectual tools they have.

The clear action-driven plot, vivid descriptions, concise dialogue, and developed characters are asking for a screen adaptation. With luck it could become a powerful influential movie - if only Hollywood weren't in the hands of the people who are described in this book as the unwitting villains.

It was written in 2006 but it's even more relevant today and, I'm afraid, its relevancy will continue to grow with the advancement of Obama's policies. In this sense, Gary's story is more than just an educated guess - I'd call it an educated prophecy.

I loved this book mostly because of the main character. He seemed to have picked such a great career. When his world came crashing down he realized the more important things in life. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to make us look deeper into ourselves and find fulfillment. Great Pick.

This book is thoughtful, and takes its reader to a place that they probably wouldn't go on their own. The writing and tone of the novel remind me greatly of 1984 and A Brave New World. The pace moves quickly, never allowing the reader a moment of boredom, and gives a wonderful social commentary.

The main character, Clifton, is realistic and extremely sympathetic. As he grows within the novel, becoming stronger and more self assured, I felt myself rooting for him and the cause of the Workshop.

I know this is a book that I will recommend to my friends. The only thing about it that I didn't love were some of the longer dialogues about different schools of thought. I understand their point in the perspective of the novel, but slowed the momentum of the plot.

Gary Wolf's book Workshop of the Second Self is a very entertaining read. I loved the concept of the society running amok. I found myself not wanting to put the book down.
Clifton Pembroke is a disability advocate that winds up having some one make a claim against him. To see all these different disabilities being used to help people that are 'less fortunate' to get a job or be come the person that they feel they are entitled to.
I have never read a book like this before that I found some similarities to things in the real world. I don't know if similarities is the right word. I just mean I can see how society could come to be just like Centerville in the book. I highly recommend this book. I give this book 4 1/2 stars.

Imagine a future world where once controversial programs like Affirmative Action have mutated from level setting opportunities for the underserved to entitlement programs that allow people with troubled pasts, minimal aptitude, and even less motivation to assume the identity of another citizen--not only their identity, but their profession, their possessions, their life. Yes, in the year 2030, this process of "rediscovery" has empowered malcontents to legally challenge the successful lives of others and the results are almost unimaginable: a bartender or cab driver cutting into a patient in the OR, or for that matter, an alcoholic surgeon at the controls of an airliner or a construction crane. In this world, political correctness has evolved into a practice of enabling people to "be themselves," to dream their next career, to reach for and grasp opportunities traditionally closed to them in more pragmatic times.

This waking nightmare, titled "Workshop of the Second Self," is the work of author Gary Wolf, who has deftly imagined a society teetering on the edge of anarchy because of laws that, by sanctioning complete freedom of expression, have begun to threaten the lives of responsible citizens who take responsibility for their own successes--and failures. The book is filled with striking images such as a rush hour subway train, where people in the sequestered "self-expression" car expose themselves and bay like wild animals, or the tense negotiations between a terrorist "rediscovery" group and rediscovery advocates who will not represent their case.

With almost Hemingway-esque clarity, Wolf populates his novel with interesting characters, like his mild protagonist, Clifton Pembroke, a professional whose life begins to gradually spin out of control. The mysterious woman, Karen, in the lounge, who could be either Pembroke's friend and confidant, or a spy. Or the dispossessed academics meeting in the diner or corner bookshop, summoning the ideas of the great philosophers to help them forge a new and better world than the one they have inherited.

Like Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" Wolf's futuristic novel depicts the paradoxes of a society outwardly espousing personal expression and self-realization while etherizing its citizens and protecting them from themselves. "Workshop of the Second Self" is a thought-provoking, entertaining read from start to finish.