Erin's review of Nausea
Nausea (New Directions Paperbook) by Jean-Paul Sartre
Erin's review
rating:
recommended for:
entry-level existentialists with a lot of patience
status:
Read in May, 2008
** spoiler alert **
This really deserves a proper review (which I shall give it in due time), and it probably deserves more like 3.5 stars (if only goodreads would allow such a rating). However, never have I read a book that could be so dense and unreadable at a mere 178 pages. There are moments in this book that really dazzle (if you can call any existentialist meanderings "dazzling) but I found it so abstract at times that it almost seemed redundant and slightly pretentious. Granted, after reading a biography on Sartre, I don't think he was the most humble of creatures, and given the restraints of the novel form, he does a damn good job of taking on a narrative whilst explaining his existentialist theories in under 200 pages.
Perhaps the most fasincating passages, and the most concrete, were of the narrator's doomed relationship with a former lover, Anny. Sartre has captured the simple, near indescribable nuances of a once-loving and now regrettable relationship so uncannily- you can feel the st...more
Perhaps the most fasincating passages, and the most concrete, were of the narrator's doomed relationship with a former lover, Anny. Sartre has captured the simple, near indescribable nuances of a once-loving and now regrettable relationship so uncannily- you can feel the st...more
comments (showing 1-1 of 1)
newest »
date
Entry level existentialists! That sounds like an amazing job position!I didn't read the full review because of spoilers. My friend Jonathan is very much into Sartre...actually, he started really immersing himself in the stuff when he was your age as I remember because that was one of our earliest conversations. I've never read Sartre so I suppose I am behind. The philosopher who really fascinates me is probably Kierkegaard though I think I am a few IQ points shy of understanding what he's getting at. He also strikes me as the type of author to read later on in life after a few centuries of reading (perfect for an avid vampire reader in other words) because then you'd understand all of his references. I think I'm rambling a bit now but I should probably get back into reading more philosophical texts. I've forgotten alot of what I've learned from college. The greatest philosophers to me are Hesse and Kundera, John Berger, Rushdie...some people just call those writers.
oh and Sarah Vowell! She's a philosopher in Lincoln! Ok I will stop this incessant rambling now.
