Sarah Bakewell was a bookseller and a curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library before publishing her highly acclaimed biographies The Smart, The English Dane, and the best-selling How to Live: A Life of Montaigne, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. In addition to writing, she now teaches in the Masters of Studies in Creative Writing at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. She lives in London.
"The apricot cocktails in her subtitle and her sometimes breezy
tone-- 'I like to imagine them in a big, busy café of the mind,
probably a Parisian one'-- seem to promise an undemanding, gossipy
romp. Instead, [Bakewell] judges and explains the ways in which
each writer responded to the moral and political crises of the
1930s and after, and her book asks demanding questions about the
ways in which people think about themselves and their relations
with others. She shapes her answers in the form of biographical
narratives, because her central theme is that the large impersonal
ideas pursued by much modern philosophy are less profound and
illuminating than the varied and conflicting truths found in
stories of individual lives. Those stories, in this book, include
impressively lucid descriptions of what these thinkers thought and
what they said in their writings and café arguments. Bakewell is
often annoyed but never defeated by Heidegger's obscurity, and some
of her most exciting pages are the engaged, unsimplifying accounts
she offers of complex philosophies, even ones that finally repel
her...One of many persuasive surprises in Bakewell's book is her
suggestion that Heidegger's prose sometimes resembles Gertrude
Stein's in its deliberate linguistic strangeness, a resemblance
that goes deeper than style...An unspoken theme of Bakewell's book
is the variety of ways in which academic philosophy can be
distorted by power relations. Some of her characters, notably
Merleau-Ponty, were immune to the temptations that came with the
status of European professorship. Others, like Husserl and
Heidegger, demanded obeisance... Bakewell has a special affection
for philosophers who stayed free of the academy, especially Sartre
and Beauvoir...Sarah Bakewell's previous book was an engaging
biography of Montaigne that was also a subtle exposition of
Montaigne's writings. Its audacious title was How to Live, and her
new book deserves to be read as a further study in the same
enlivening theme."--The New York Times Book Review "At the
Existentialist Café is a bracingly fresh look at once-antiquated
ideas and the milieu in which they flourished. Ms. Bakewell's
approach is enticing and unusual: She is not an omniscient author
acting as critic, biographer or tour guide. This book is full of
winning small details. Some may find the description of Camus as 'a
simple, cheerful soul, ' as surprising as Sartre's apparently
charming Donald Duck imitation... 'When reading Sartre on freedom,
Beauvoir on the subtle mechanisms of oppression, Kierkegaard on
anxiety, Camus on rebellion, Heidegger on technology or
Merleau-Ponty on cognitive science, ' Ms. Bakewell writes, 'one
sometimes feels one is reading the latest news.'"--Janet Maslin,
The New York Times "Ms. Bakewell's jaunty, colloquial style very
successfully brought the ideas of Michel de Montaigne to a wide and
general audience in her best-selling How to Live. The
existentialists and their subtle differences from the
phenomenologists in the context of World War II and its aftermath
are a much greater challenge, which she meets with equal elan."
--The Wall Street Journal "This lively history of the
existentialist movement makes a strong, if sometimes disorienting,
case for the inextricability of philosophy and biography, embedding
dense concepts--such as 'being, ' 'nothingness, ' and 'bad
faith'--in the colorful lives and milieus of those who debated
them. Though the book is in many ways a group study, dotted with
cameo appearances by Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, and others, it focusses on Heidegger and Sartre.
Heidegger appears as oracular, hermetic, and Nazi-tainted; Sartre
as intellectually promiscuous and Soviet-sympathizing. Their
divergent characters and checkered reputations lend credence to
Bakewell's view that 'ideas are interesting, but people are vastly
more so.'" --The New Yorker "Brisk and perceptive...A fresh,
invigorating look into complex minds and a unique time and place."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Bakewell brilliantly explains
20th-century existentialism through the extraordinary careers of
the philosophers who devoted their lives and work to 'the task of
responsible alertness' and 'questions of human identity, purpose,
and freedom.' Through vivid characterizations and a clear
distillation of dense philosophical concepts, Bakewell embeds the
story of existentialism in the 'story of a whole European century,
' dramatizing its central debates of authenticity, rebellion,
freedom, and responsibility." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Bakewell follows her celebrated study of Montaigne...with a lively
appraisal of existentialism and its leading thinkers...With
coverage of friendship, travel, argument, tragedy, drugs, Paris,
and, of course, lots of sex, Bakewell's biographical approach pays
off... The result is an engaging story about a group of passionate
thinkers, and a reminder of their continued relevance." --Booklist
(starred review) "Sweeping and dazzlingly rich...This wonderfully
readable account of one of the 20th centu-ry's major intellectual
movements offers a cornucopia of biographical detail and insights
that show its relevance for our own time."--BookPage
"Tremendous...rigorous and clarifying...Highly recommended for
anyone who thinks." --Library Journal (starred review) "In her
instructive and entertaining study of these thinkers and their
hangers-on, Sarah Bakewell... credits the existentialist movement,
broadly defined, with providing inspiration to feminism, gay
rights, anti-racism, anti-colonialism and other radical causes. A
few cocktails can, it seems, lead to unexpected things." --The
Economist "At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot
Cocktails may come dressed in a seductive title, but Sarah
Bakewell's book about the people and ideas behind the
existentialist movement is both breezy and brainy. Bakewell
demonstrated her ability to plumb big ideas for real-life relevance
in How to Live, her 2010 biography of Michel de Montaigne...She
brings the same lively intelligence to her latest work. Here
Bakewell traces a fascinating sort of philosophical relay of
ever-mutating concepts -- perception, being, authenticity,
responsibility -- against a backdrop of political upheavals. Her
book explores the roots of existentialism and its impact in the
20th century in much the way Carl Schorske's Pulitzer Prize-winning
Fin de Siècle Vienna explored the birth of modern art and culture
in late-19th-century Vienna... [and] lucidly breaks down dense
philosophical texts while avoiding the pitfalls of
over-simplification... At the Existentialist Cafe is most riveting
in its report of the World War II years. During the occupation,
existentialists -- who believed above all in freedom and
responsibility -- were engaged and committed to the Resistance in
their actions and their literature... Among a panoply of riches,
Bakewell offers fascinating anecdotes, including the heroics
involved in saving Husserl's papers during the war. Her chronicle
of many lives cut short reveals an astonishing number of fatal
heart attacks among existentialists -- including Boris Vian,
Richard Wright, Merleau-Ponty and Arendt -- leaving readers to
wonder if philosophy isn't a heartbreaking enterprise after all.
Bakewell surely doesn't think so. 'Even when existentialists
reached too far, wrote too much, revised too little, made grandiose
claims, or otherwise disgraced themselves, it must be said that
they remained in touch with the density of life, and that they
asked the important questions. Give me that any day, ' she declares
in this rousing call to robust intellectual engagement."
"These days, the word 'existentialism' brings to mind black
turtlenecks, French cigarettes, and a distinctly European sense of
despair. But as Sarah Bakewell describes them in this vivid, vital
group biography, existentialists like Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de
Beauvior, and Albert Camus were courageous free thinkers in an age
of fascism, totalitarianism, and conformity."--The Boston Globe "A
vivid and warmly engaging intellectual history."--The Los Angeles
Times "Bakewell has made weighty, complex philosophical ideas feel
exhilarating -- for that she should be praised, and read."--The San
Francisco Chronicle "Although biography provides the narrative
momentum of At the Existentialist Café, much of the meat comes from
the philosophy...Bakewell has a knack for crystallising key ideas
by identifying choice original quotations and combining them with
her own words...Perhaps the aphorism that best captures the book is
one of Bakewell's own: 'Thinking should be generous and have a good
appetite.' Her hunger is infectious."
--Financial Times "[At the Existentialist Café] offers fascinating
insights into the cultural impact of existentialism on the
English-speaking world...Existentialism, in all its incarnations,
is really about making choices. How to live? How to be free? How to
be an 'authentic' human being? In her summing-up, Bakewell makes
the case that these questions remain as important today as they
ever were." --The Guardian (US) "Bakewell writes with a sunny
disposition and light touch...She combines confident handling of
difficult philosophical concepts with a highly enjoyable writing
style. I can't think of a better introduction to modern
intellectual history."--Newsday "Bakewell's How to Live [was] a
remarkably erudite and accessible study of the life of
Montaigne...At first skeptical, I was soon warmed over by the
author's preternaturally smooth style. At the Existentialist Café
does precisely the same for Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir,
Albert Camus, and Martin Heidegger." --Flavorwire "This tender,
incisive and fair account of the existentialists ends with their
successive deaths, leaving me with the same sense of nostalgia and
loss as one feels after reading a great epic novel." --The
Telegraph "[At] the Existentialist Café is packed with
out-of-the-way knowledge and has a cast of weird characters such as
only a gathering of philosophers could supply. It is written with
affection. Even the horrible Heidegger is seen as human in his
absurdity." --The Sunday Times
"[E]ngaging and wide-ranging."--Prospect Magazine "[At the
Existentialist Café is] a wonderfully readable combination of
biography, philosophy, history, cultural analysis and personal
reflection." --The Independent "At the Existentialist Cafe will
prove to be one of the best books on philosophy you will read this
year."--The Wichita Eagle
"[An] invigorating book."--Tablet "Irresistible." --Buffalo
News
"Don't let the breezy title put you off. At the Existentialist
Café, Sarah Bakewell's group portrait of Husserl, Heidegger,
Sartre, Beauvoir, and the other 'Continental' philosophers who
flourished before and after World War II, is a work of deep
intelligence and sympathy, reminding us how exciting those thinkers
can be. And it's a page-turner. I was so sorry to finish the last
chapter that I almost--almost--ran over to the Strand to see what
they had by Merleau-Ponty." --Lorin Stein, Paris Review Daily "At
the Existentialist Café Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
combines the exhilaration of initial discovery with the more
considered evaluations of a mature thinker. The result is a warm
and challenging work of intellectual history that retains something
of existentialism's glamor without ever sacrificing its vigorous
interrogation. It also re-centers existentialism as a viable method
of philosophically engaging with contemporaneity. Even if the
context has shifted slightly, the question it asks remains just as
relevant now as in the post-war years: what shall we make of a
shattered world?" --The Brooklyn Rail
"It's not often that you miss your bus stop because you're so
engrossed in reading a book about existentialism, but I did exactly
that while immersed in Sarah Bakewell's At the Existentialist Café.
The story of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Heidegger et al is strange,
fun and compelling reading. If it doesn't win awards, I will eat my
proof copy."--Katy Guest, The Independent on Sunday
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