ePub At the Existentialist Café: Freedom; Being; and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre; Simone de Beauvoir; Albert Camus; Martin Heidegger; Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others by Sarah Bakewell in History

Review

132 of 134 people found the following review helpful. Weaving history; biography; and philosophyBy Angie BoyterIn the opening scene of At the Existentialist Café; philosopher Raymond Aron says to his friend Jean-Paul Sartre; “If you are a phenomenologist you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it”. After reading this book; I say; “If you are Sarah Bakewell; you can take existentialism and make sense out of it.”The existentialist themes of freedom; political activism; and “authentic being” became watchwords of the middle and late 20th century. When I first encountered existentialist writing; I was simultaneously entranced; repelled; and confused. (Bakewell tells us that even Beauvoir said that when she and Sartre tried to read Heidegger’s lecture “What is Metaphysics?”; “we could not understand a word of it.”) Not only did the existentialists not always agree with each other; sometimes they did not even agree with themselves. National Book Critics’ Circle Award winner Bakewell’s clear writing and carefully researched portrayal of the context in which existentialism developed gave me a much better understanding of this school of thought that both influenced and reflected most of the last century.In addition to a providing a lucid discussion of the various expressions of existentialist philosophy; Bakewell really brings to life the thinkers behind it. Names like Husserl; Heidegger; Beauvoir and lesser known figures in their milieu became real people. One of my favorite chapters introduced me to “the dancing philosopher” Merleau-Ponty; whose personality was as engaging as his thinking. Unlike Beauvoir and Sartre; “journalists did not quiz him about his sex life---which is a shame; as they would have dug up some interesting stories.” Photos throughout the book were a nice complement to the narrative. My favorite; which is on the last page of the book; shows Sartre and Beauvoir together laughing and obviously enjoying life; a stark contrast to the angst usually associated with the existentialists.The existentialists’ lives spanned almost the entire twentieth century: World War I; the Great Depression; World War II; and the Cold War with its threat of nuclear attack. They were profoundly affected by what was happening around them and to them. Bakewell does an excellent job of showing how; as Merleau-Ponty put it; both their lives and ideas were “contingent…---at the mercy of historical events and other changes they could not control”. It was heart-wrenching to envision Edmund Husserl fleeing the German persecution of the Jews while his former friend and student served as a leading apologist for the Nazis.In the final chapter; Bakewell lets the reader in on some of her own feelings about existentialism and the existentialist figures; from her original fascination thirty years ago to how her feelings shifted in the course of writing the book. It was an excellent summation that gave me more insight into the author as well as the philosophy and people she writes about.I’m not sure whether to call At the Existentialist Café biography; history; or philosophy. What I will definitely call it is worth your time. This book could be a contender for another major award.152 of 161 people found the following review helpful. Magnificently crafted; an absolute treasureBy Trudie BarrerasIt is well known that technology has reached the point where we are often better known by the almighty computer than we know ourselves. Although my Vine queue sometimes mystifies me (WHY as a 76-year-old woman whose youngest grandchild is in high school am I continuously being offered baby products?); it turns out that Sarah Bakewell’s “At the Existentialist Café” is a tremendous gift to my reading experience. It didn’t take me long to realize why I was offered this book; despite my previous total lack of involvement with any formal study of philosophy. I recently purchased several books relating to Edith Stone; the Jewish existential philosopher and student of Husserl; who converted to Catholicism; became a nun; was martyred at Auschwitz; and recently canonized. Indeed; Bakewell’s book; much to my delight; more or less begins with a discussion of the phenomenological approach to philosophy of Husserl; and cites Stein’s dissertation on Empathy; which is one of the books I purchased.In any event; Bakewell’s book is a magnificently crafted narrative that really defies any narrow classification. Yes; it deals with modern philosophical trends such as Phenomenology; Existentialism and Transcendentalism going all the way back to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. In addition; it is a historical description of the circumstances surrounding the development of philosophy and its interaction with the political scene before; during and after the rise of Nazism and WWII. Furthermore; it is a series of wonderfully insightful biographical vignettes of the major authors of that era; with special focus on Sartre and Beauvoir.A book with this scope could turn out to be deadly dull; incredibly complex; or hopelessly academic. It is none of these things. It almost reads like a novel; and smoothly interweaves both factual and analytical material; bringing the various individuals who are highlighted to vivid life. There are excellent illustrations; scattered throughout the text. Although they are not captioned in the “uncorrected proof” copy provided for review; they fit so well with the narrative that it is easy to see how they connect. Again due to the uncorrected proof format; the extensive notes provided at the end are not annotated in the text; which made it easy for me as a non-scholarly reader to simply read through with ease; but with confidence that if I wanted to check any sources; that information IS available. Finally; Bakewell provided a multi-page “cast of characters” which gave thumbnail bio data on everyone mentioned in the book; which I consider extremely valuable. I consider myself both blessed; and extremely enlightened; this book is a treasure.200 of 220 people found the following review helpful. An entertaining but glib reading of an important period in Continental philosophyBy Drew OdomSarah Bakewell's At the Existentialist Café is; like its title; entertaining and glib. It consists largely of anecdotes about and shallow intellectual histories of its major figures. Her heroes are Beauvoir; Sartre; and Merleau-Ponty; roughly in that order. Her summaries of the various philosophical positions rarely dig any deeper than the familiar commonplaces of each of them: Hussar's epoché; Sartre's existence precedes essence; Heidegger's investigations into Dasein and Being-in-the-World; for example. This is in no way a probing book. It could prove useful as a way of stimulating more insightful or complex readings in the original writings of each of them; but its own summaries remain doggedly superficial. Its bias is clearly toward Beauvoir and Sartre. Some of the consequences of that bias are troubling. She rightly excoriates Heidegger for not only his Nazi affiliations; but for the even more important Nazi-like implications in much of his thought; though there are far better and more probing studies of this problem in Heidegger's work; like Charles Bambach's Heidegger's Roots. But; though she rightly denounces Sartre for his support of some "odious" regimes; she nearly forgives him for that since his support was motivated by a wish for human freedom. The philosophical entanglement Sartre found himself in while promoting both freedom and engagement is one Bakewell discusses; but once again the treatment remains superficial and little detail is offered. A man who talked a lot about freedom and yet supported Stalin; Mao; and even Pol Pot shouldn't be forgiven for his sins quite so easily.About the famous disagreements between and falling out of Camus and Sartre she says too little. Camus; it seems to me; she discusses shabbily. It is one of those many places where her overall glibness and willingness to settle for the biographically anecdotal do injustice to the deeper issues involved. This is no place for me to review them. But many readers and thinkers have come to see Camus; like Raymond Aron; another thinker Bakewell treats unfairly; as more significant writers than either Beauvoir or Sartre; in part because they remained at least in part true to that other French tradition of the humanist enlightenment. Sartre; on the other hand; in later life gave his support to the anti-humanism and irrationalism that was in part the movement in French thought that followed him; even though in many ways it contradicted his own earlier positions. Bakewell has every right to state her own preferences; of course. But her reasons for them seem to me too easy; especially when she is forgiving a man (and Beauvoir; too) for his support of murderous; violent regimes because he did so out of desire to realize greater human freedom. The one word 'odious' is hopelessly insufficient. Her treatment of many other important French thinkers of the day are even more shallow. Her reading of Gabriel Marcel; for example; would seem to consist of little more than a glance at one of his book's titles. I don't mean that remark to be taken literally; of course; but it has some truth to it. And I think her book would have been improved if it had considered along side the men and women it does discuss some of the countervailing philosophies in France; Maritain's for example. It might have complicated her readings usefully. I find the near absence of Paul Ricoeur puzzling. His name is mentioned only once. Yet he was the true inheritor of Husserl in France; albeit of a somewhat later generation. Still; much of his work overlapped the time in which Sartre and many of the others were still writing. Of course; it would be hard to write anecdotally about Ricoeur. His life was his work. There's nothing to gossip about. Yet he was probably France's greatest philosopher during his lifetime. It is odd to find him here essentially absent since Bakewell's book does; to some extent; find its origins in phenomenology. At the Existentialist Café is at times entertaining; even ingratiating. It's a quick read. If one knows little to nothing about these thinkers; it could form a valuable introduction. But it is no more than that; and for a deeper understanding a reader should look elsewhere; especially to the writers themselves. Sartre's and Camus' fiction; for example; deserves far profounder readings than Bakewell offers here; even The Road to Freedom; despite Sartre's tendency to write about his characters less for themselves or what they might be but as examples of what his philosophy wants to say. Sartre was always a tendentious writer of fiction; Camus never was. Still; both man in their novels and stories were often more ambiguous writers than they were when writing philosophy or essays; Camus's much better and far more valuable today than Sartre's however. What Bakewell offers instead is mostly plot summaries and introductory interpretations; as if she were addressing a high school or first year college class. But that is how her book works throughout. It means to popularize. It is an insufficient goal; even when it works. See; for one more example; her writing on Arendt and Jaspers. There is far more to both than one would ever conjecture if all one had to go on was Bakewell's words. This is not a bad beginning; if one does not know these thinkers. But it often gives the wrong idea. And it is far too shallow; too eager to please; in a way; than it ought to be. There's too much of the café in it; gossip and glib chatting; and too little deep probing into existentialist thought; with only a rare; truly profound consideration of why; in its complexity and richness; it still matters.