So-So Intro to Interesting Thinker
Customer Rating: 
Richard Rorty by Alan Malachowski is an instalment in the Philosophy Now series published by Princeton University Press. This recent series is focused on introducing contemporary philosophers.
My experience has been that reader reaction to these types of introductions is in large part influenced by two factors, one's view of the "philosopher" under consideration and the quality of the author's presentation of the "philosopher"
With regard to Rorty, although I disagree with him on many points, he is an important commentator with interesting and provocative views. He is particularly effective in highlighting the assumptions and limitations of analytic philosophy - the assessment of his ideas varies amongst readers. Malachowski's exposition of Rorty, and his ideas, is on the weak side. Clearly Malachowski is well versed in Rorty's work, however, his writing style can be irritating. Though Malachowski is lucid at times, in general he comes off like the overly chatty waiter - intruding on a pleasant experience. He appears to be trying too hard to emulate Rorty's conversational writing style. Additionally, for an introduction the book is a bit too ambitious in attempting to put forward Rorty's views as well as those of his critics (difficult in under 200 pages).
This is not a terrible book, however, it misses the mark as an entry point to Rorty.
Good introduction to Rorty. Malachowski has a handle on what Rorty thinks and how he's developed
Customer Rating: "His [Rorty's] controversial work has generally been more influential than understood - a fate that justifies an `introduction'" (pg. 2). People like Malachowski are rare to find in philosophy departments. Rorty has more critics than supporters. Malachowski's "Richard Rorty" is a sympathetic and chronological approach to Rorty's intellectual development. Malachowski's more important contribution is the book he edited, Reading Rorty: Critical Responses to Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature and Beyond.
Rorty, himself, can be very accessible and fun to read. The best example is his collection of popular essays in the book Philosophy and Social Hope. If you've never read Rorty before and are looking for one entrance point: buy that book written by Rorty and not this one by Malachowski.
Malachowski creates sections within chapters with headings like "Heidegger" and "Wittgenstein." These sections represent brackets where some of Rorty's influences and themes are placed. Some of these sections are too small to be a contribution to the literature on Rorty but they are sufficiently long and substantive for an introduction to Rorty. For example, the section on "Wittgenstein" would be considered outdated or insufficient considering Rorty's recent publication of his 4th volume of Philosophical Papers where Rorty makes another distinction in his reading on Wittgenstein in the essay "Wittgenstein and the Linguistic Turn."
Malachowski justifies his writing an introduction to Rorty by including a chapter on how he thinks Rorty has been misunderstood and abused by critics (the chapter is titled "Some critics"). In that chapter, Malachowski defends Rorty against Simon Blackburn, Alasdiar MacInytre, Thomas Nagel, John Searle, and Bernard Williams.
For recommendations of other books on/about Rorty see my near-comprehensive Amazon listmania titled "Richard Rorty"
