At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails

Fri, 2 Jun 2017 04:09:57 GMT

At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails

Book being reviewed:
Bakewell, S. (2016). At the existentialist café: freedom, being, and apricot cocktails. New York, NY: Other Press.

Reviewer:
Nikki Elston

Curricular Areas:
Counselor Education, Professional Identity

Subject Headings:
Heath/wellness, Relationships, Social justice, War

Review:
Author Sarah Blakewell walked readers through the beginning of existentialism, revealing its origins and history. The book read like a work of fiction, but is rich with facts and information about the rise of existentialism from the world of phenomenology. The first few chapters introduced Heidegger, Husserl, Camus, Sartre, Beauvoir, and a host of other “main thinkers” that contributed to existentialism. Sartre and Heidegger’s biographies are highlighted and prominent throughout, intersecting with many of the other existential philosophers. Blakewell helped readers to understand how friendships, rivalries, war, love affairs, mentorship, and disagreement shaped a movement and the existential theory.

Existentialism is traced back through the Second World War and postwar liberation. Readers will get a glimpse into Heidegger and his Nazi sympathizing and learn how the relationship between Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were instrumental in their work and writing and how a philosophy became a movement. Much of the text was devoted to personal biography of the various cast of characters, helping the reader to gain insight into how the individual philosophers and thinkers came to their own conclusions about “What are we?” and “What should we do?” Blakewell pointed out that she is not trying to answer the question, “What is existentialism?” but instead attempted to define what existentialists do.

Novice or seasoned counselors looking for an in depth account of existentialism’s history should find this book extremely informative and helpful. Counselors-in-training who are exploring theories and looking for more information as they choose a theory to work from can use this book to better understand the foundation of the philosophy and how it has morphed and changed with each philosopher. Even if you are not an existentialist, this book may be a great supplemental reading assignment for a counseling theories class. Textbooks only have so much room for the history of each theory and often leave out the contributions of the people mentioned in this book. This book has applicability to counselor educators, counselors, and counselor-trainees looking to increase their knowledge on existentialism, whether it be utilized for practice, application, or teaching.