In "The Real Work" (a term used by magicians to refer to the accumulation of skills to produce superior tricks), Gopnik becomes an avid student of gurus in his field, including classical painters, boxers, dance instructors, and driving instructors.

Gopnik is an avid student of several gurus, including a classical painter, a boxing instructor, a dance instructor, and a driving instructor, and while rejecting self-help language and bullet points, he shows that there are qualities and methods that are common to the best in any field.

For one thing, their mastery is always a process of deconstruction and construction, identifying and perfecting the small component parts of a skill and combining them to achieve an overall effect that is greater than the sum of its parts. Just as in music, vibrato (the method of not landing on the right note at all) provides the greatest expressiveness,

. But Gopnik's simplest and most exhilarating lesson is that we are surrounded by mastery.

From the parent who can make a professional strudel to the social worker who helps him master his own demons, as in one of the most personal emotional outpourings Gopnik has ever written.

Spirited and profound, The Real Work will help you understand how mastery can occur in your own life and, importantly, why each of us relentlessly seeks to better ourselves in the first place.