The Principles of Uncertainty [Paperback]

Maira Kalman paints her highly personal worldview in this inimitable combination of image and text

An irresistible invitation to experience life through a beloved artist's psyche,The Principles of Uncertaintyis a compilation of Maira Kalman'sNew York Timescolumns. Part personal narrative, part documentary, part travelogue, part chapbook, and all Kalman, these brilliant, whimsical paintings, ideas, and images - which initially appear random - ultimately form an intricately interconnected worldview, an idiosyncratic inner monologue.“Sublime…  Kalman’s elegantly witty and at times melancholy narrative runs arm in arm with her unmistakable paintings on a serendipitous romp through the history of the world.”—Vanity Fair
 
“Wildly original…there’s nothing else even remotely like it… This hilarious, wise, and deeply moving volume [is] the ultimate picture book for grown-ups.”—O Magazine
 
“An odd treasure.”—Ariel Levy, The New York Times Book Review
 
“Within this work, as much literary as artistic, one finds the assurance (the certainty!) that the human condition is inescapable but not insurmountable.”—The New York Observer
 
“In her distinctive, muscularly whimsical paintings with sad-funny handwritten annotations, Kalman encounters, well, everything…More personal than much of her previous work, the book is simultaneously idiosyncratic and universal.  And utterly lovable.” —Culture + Travel
 
“This is a unique, warmly intelligent book for the enjoyment of artists, writers and anyone who delights in works of genuine imagination.”—L.K. Hanson, Minnesota Star Tribune
 
“My absolute favorite book of recent memory: an exquisiló-