Thanks, Joe; has there been a recent book that's had to be explained by its author as much as Lilla's?

Well, Taylor at least pretends to be thick about the possibility of something like esoteric writing, and Lilla wouldn't mention it explicitly in this context if his life depended on it. Strauss' "sociology of philosophy" goes unmentioned, which makes conducting this conversation at least a little more difficult and convoluted.