<p>Inthe name of an assault on "totalization" and "identity," a number ofcontemporary theorists have been busily washing Marxism's dialecticaland utopian projects down the plug-hole of postmodernism and"post-politics." A case in point is recent interpretation of one of thegreatest twentieth-century philosophers, Theodor Adorno. In thispowerful book, Fredric Jameson proposes a radically different readingof Adorno's work, especially of his major works on philosophy andaesthetics: <em>Negative Dialectics</em> and <em>Aesthetic Theory.</em></p><p>Jamesonargues persuasively that Adorno's contribution to the development ofMarxism remains unique and indispensable. He shows how Adorno's work onaesthetics performs deconstructive operations yet is in sharpdistinction to the now canonical deconstructive genre of writing. Heexplores the complexity of Adorno's very timely affirmation ofphilosophy - of its possibility after the "end" of grand theory. Aboveall, he illuminates the subtlety and richness of Adorno's continuingemphasis on late capitalism as a totality within the very forms of ourculture. In its lucidity, <em>Late Marxism</em> echoes the writing of its subject, to whose critical, utopian intelligence Jameson remains faithful.</p>