This is one of the best works in this series. Strathern does not write about Sartre uncritically, but he writes about him with great sympathy and understanding. He retells the story of Sartre's unusual childhood and explains how and why he became a person who always heard the sound of his own drummer. And even the exposition of Sartre as a philosopher illustrates this point, as Sartre continually goes in a way of his own. Moreover the explication of the background to Sartre's major philosophical works is the most clear that I know. He shows how Husserl's effort to synthesize rationalism and empiricism in his phenomenology provides a take- off point for Sartre in 'Being and Nothingness'. There is also a brief but insightful description of 'Being and Nothingness' and its relation to the work of Heidegger. Strathern stresses that Sartre continually moved despite his radical individualism in the direction of taking responsibility for the world. He may have erred in practical political judgment again and again but he showed a courage in standing up for what he believed in. Strathern also gives us a clue to the famous Sartre- Beauvoir relationship so important to the life and work of both. This through the reading of the orphan Sartre's relation to his mother who was in some ways more sister to him than mother. The Sartre- Beauvoir alliance served them both long after it ceased to be a romantic relationship. Strathern comments that their 'open relationship' was something courageously 'new'for its time- a claim that a few old- fashioned folks like myself might have other terminology for. All in all this is a very fine piece of work. One feels in it Strathern's greater closeness to Sartre than to any other of the philosophers he has written about.
One of the great things about the internet is that everyone has access to it. One of the problems with the internet is that everyone has access to it. This book "Sartre in 90 Minutes" by Paul Strathern is a fine book that doesn't pretend to be anything more than it claims to be. It is an excellent introduction to Sartre and is much more approachable than the faulty traslations from French that make reading Sartre like swimming in quicksand. Anyone who cannot gain a basic understanding of Sartre's basic premises from reading this book should give up on reading. It provides a succinct and comprehensive explanation of the philosopher, the events that shaped him and his place in history.
One always suspects that totally negative reviews are written by someone who has an ax to grind, another book they wish to promote, or by people who in failing to comprehend what they have read compensate by pointing the blame at the author rather than their own lack of lucidity.
It has been said that one million monkeys with one million typewriters could eventually dupliate the works of Shakespeare. The internet and the millions of monkeys sitting at their keyboards have proved that claim to be false.
