You don't have to get into the heavy stuff about personal freedom, bad faith and the death of God etc to enjoy this, because it is written so well that you can just take it as a story at face value.

The difference for me is, however, the underlying idea. I think a novel with a great central idea is a great thing. See Catch 22 for a similar example. Here, Sartre presents to us the situation where you find tourself unable to make the next move because it will go against your principles. But that very move will preserve your freedom, which is in fact your guiding principle. So do you break your own rules to allow yourself to carry on living by them, or just chuck everything away and start over?

I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty base to build a story on. I'm afraid I can't explain it as well as it should be, but I hope you get the drift. The setting, characters and events are all presented in a very colloquial style and manner - don't expect anything really heavy here - he saves that for the 2nd and 3rd installments of the trilogy.

I liked it. Top 5 book of all time. Read it while you're young enough to appreciate the challenge. Go on! Eh? Go on....


The Age of Reason   July 29, 2002
 10 out of 15 found this review helpful

The first part of Satre's epic "Roads to Freedom" trilogy tells of a philosophy teacher Mathieu's struggle to find the 4000 francs needed to provide his mistress with a safe abortion.

Mathieu is a man consumed by his personal fight to achieve and maintain true freedom. Satre brilliantly depicts the landscape of Paris in the summer of 1938, the second world war looming large on the horizon. All of the author's characters are imbued with reality and tragedy, from the tormented homosexual Daniel, to Mathieu himself. It is this that makes the creates the empathy between the reader and characters, and makes the storyy so compelling.

This book is a masterpiece and one of the best novels of the post war period, whether read as a stand - alone piece or as part of the Satre's trilogy of war novels.


I love this book because the characters are so real.   March 9, 2001
 13 out of 16 found this review helpful

The hero of this book is a man who has everything worked out in his life, until his girlfriend falls pregnant and he has to question the principles that he has lived by so far. The whole book focuses on two days in the summer of 1938, and follows Mathieu as he tries to find money to pay for an abortion, but still trying to convince himself that he is free and that his freedom is worth something. All the time the there's something creeping up in the background to bring a brilliant twist to the story. Sartre was a French philosopher and this book is an easy introduction to existentialiam, for those interested in philosophy and those not alike!