The Age of Reason

A dark brooding, philosophical film noir of a novel; a knife stabbed through the hand in a Parisian cabaret night club as a proof of metaphysical freedom. Sure, some might say it is melodramatic navel gazing for the most of it, but this is to miss the mood, the existentialist experience, the atmosphere of self-examination, of moral questioning. This is no novel to be read for the plot, it is an illustration of a few of the minor philosophical reflections that Sartre makes in his Being and Nothingness, of the relation to the Other, the action of the human gaze, bad faith, and the giddying vertigo that the sense of freedom induces (and why we avoid it). Few of the characters are really likeable, but who can speculate if they would be show more representative of our friends if we knew them as well as we know ourselves. That is Sartre talking, and we know he did not particularly like himself. show less

I was surprised how good this novel was as an attention gripping and well constructed story. Such close attention to the outer and inner dialogues of the major characters allows the reader to fully engage with its tortuous progress.
The Parisian atmosphere of grubby apartments, loud nightclubs, café and the feverish self-absorption of the characters creates a captivating story line.
And we all know that the catastrophe of the downfall of France is but one year away from the sordid little deceptions that accompany this sad drama.
An important book on any book list - and a wonderful translation too.

Soap opera with brains. Yes, I can agree with this. Caring about other people while watching their little lives and dramas is so much more fulfilling when they prove themselves to have complex despair behind their everyday actions. It never ends, really. The constant proving to oneself that this life is worthwhile, that the hopes of the past and the dreams of the future won't go to waste. Mathieu keeps to his belief of freedom, to be capable of anything, no matter what constraints have been laid across his living by emotional bonds and societal dictations and past history. In the end he achieves this freedom, and finds that he no longer believes in it. He has reached the age of reason, when he sees that the ideas that once characterized show more him can no longer be applied to him, unless he wishes to be a hypocrite. In achieving his freedom, he sacrificed for nothing, a nothing that provides a clean a break from everything that had been forcing him into a situation that was no longer; and for what? He may have found a small satisfaction in not being free, now that he had realized that he was waiting for a moment of a lifetime that would never come. Everyone around him either spins out delusions of the future or chases desires that had died long ago, joining him in his everlasting goal of not sinking into regret and despair. A satisfyingly realistic portrayal of the tightrope walk that daily life really is. show less

There's a bit where Sartre describes Mathieu's sister-in-law: she's pretty, but "Mathieu had on countless occasions tried to unify these fluid features, but they escaped him; as a face, Odette's always seemed to be dissolving, and thus retained its elusive bourgeois mystery." (p. 127) And that's a little how I feel about this book, halfway through; it's certainly very good, and pretty to look at, but it's weirdly slippery. I can't quite get a handle on it.

That may be my fault. Tough to say what you bring to a book, and what the book brings to you.

And there's a sense of foreboding hanging over the thing that makes me feel like this won't always be the story; like something might happen soon to throw everyone into sharper relief. Maybe show more the whole thing is like the Gauguin self-portrait that Mathieu takes Ivich to see: so far we're just drawing the shadowy figures behind him, and soon enough we'll show the figure in front.

Sorry, I got a little flowery there.

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And it ended like and unlike how I expected. I don't want to say too much, 'cause, y'know, spoilers and all that. It was beautiful, and I feel like getting screamingly plastered now. show less

An achingly analysed view of human's potential to be "free", whatever that means, Sartre shows the way in which morality is important in his view due to the complex web of human relations. Whatever choice a person makes, they are accountable to whoever those choices affect. A person's freedom, according to Sartre, is dependent on their agency in deciding between the myriad paths in life.

I have to say I tend to lean more towards a Foucauldian view than those held by Sartre, it was an interesting read though, and I found it an easy introduction to his work.

This was a novel that was great in how it was written, the ideas and formulated concepts that were developed throughout its duration. While the content itself is not the strongest point, what it is meant to represent is much stronger and carries the story from its inception to its conclusion. Overall, a fine book.

4 stars.

Part history, part philosophical novel this book captures a slice of time in Paris like no other. If you think Sartre has to be thick and boring, try this book as a very readable introduction to his life and how his life was influenced by the events transforming Europe at the time.