Reviews

At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell

margareads's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

5.0

bemjanim's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

probably couldve read this faster ngl

nickedkins's review against another edition

5.0

I thought this was a great way to dip my toes into existentialism. From the subtitle, I was a bit worried that it would all be brooding photos of Camus in a trenchcoat and quips from de Beauvoir and Sartre, but there were plenty of sections actually discussing the ideas in reasonable detail. I'd mostly encountered Heidegger in the context of people saying how difficult and dense the writing was, so it was enlightening to get the backstory of his gradual movement into his own enclosed world of ideas.

Overall, a very effective gateway book.

foodforsauce's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.0

mxunsmiley's review against another edition

5.0

At first I was a bit skeptical but this turned out to be an entertaining look into the lives of the prominent existentialists. I think it is a good introduction to their thinking, it certainly has piqued my interest because I had a completely different idea of what existentialism was about before reading this. It's also cool to see how their philosophies aligned with their political ideologies throughout the course of historical events, for better or worse (especially in the case of Heidegger... glad he's dead).

pixie_d's review

adventurous challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

heavysethilarious's review against another edition

emotional reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.5

rebekahisreading's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

devonmaureen's review against another edition

challenging funny informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

3.5 or a 3.75? I did end up really enjoying this book. It made a lot of these figures come to life as people. I appreciated the gossip. A bit meandering or, non-central? But I definitely learned a lot I didn’t know. As someone who dislikes philosophy, I came around to liking this and liking the subject more. 

m_henchard's review against another edition

3.0

I've long had a distaste for mid-20th c. countercultural types in philosophy, and I have to thank the author for finally convincing me I need not investigate any of the writers discussed, save Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and maybe Iris Murdoch.