“The philosopher’s task is neither to reduce the mysterious to a neat set of concepts nor to gaze at it in awed silence. It is to follow the first phenomenological imperative: to go to the things themselves in order to describe them, attempting ‘rigorously to put into words what is not ordinarily put into words, what is sometimes considered inexpressible’.”
In At the Existentialist Café, Bakewell presents a very digestible recount of the events surrounding Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and the lives of other philosophers in the twentieth century. The first few chapters are dedicated to Husserl and Heidegger, the phenomenologists who paved the way for the existentialists. The chapters then follow a pseudo-chronological order, exploring other philosophers such as Camus, Merleau-Ponty, and Arendt, although mostly in the context of Sartre and Beauvoir’s lives.
I read this book mostly to get the historical context surrounding Camus and Sartre, after reading some of their works. I still want to read a biography solely focused on Camus, but this book was great at providing a much larger picture of philosophy at the time, and how it still influences humanity into the twenty-first century. While a bit dry at times, especially in some of the early chapters, Bakewell expertly breaks down the dense writings of each philosopher so that us non-philosophers can understand.
“Sartre argues that freedom terrifies us, yet we cannot escape it, because we are it.”
If you are interested in this book, I would recommend first reading The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus by Camus, and Nausea by Sartre – these books are “spoiled” (depending how you define the word) and analyzed by Bakewell, and her discussion felt more “complete” having already read some of these works.
“The way to live is to throw ourselves, not into faith, but into our own lives, conducting them in affirmation of every moment, exactly as it is, without wishing that anything was different, and without harbouring peevish resentment against others or against our fate.”
Audible gave me a free audiobook, so I wanted to choose something that was not only interesting but had a narrator I would enjoy – so when I saw that H. Jon Benjamin had narrated his own memoir, I knew I had to listen to it. I’m a huge fan of Bob’s Burgers, and I've enjoyed some of his other works (though I never got into Archer), so I figured it would be nice to see how he came into his iconic TV roles.
What I got instead was a hilarious collection of anecdotes and stories from his childhood and teenage years all the way through to his current career. If you are looking for behind-the-scenes information on Bob’s Burgers or Archer, he barely gets into them in the last two chapters of the book. He instead spends time discussing his upbringing, his family, and his failed attempts at writing and starring in TV shows. His stories are insane, especially taken out of context:
“You know that feeling when you realize you have to spend an entire summer with a convicted felon? That’s how I felt.”
This book is downright comical, and his comedic ‘lists’ at the end of certain chapters do satisfy that Bob’s Burger’s-esque pun craving. Anyone remotely interested in his life will get something out of this (especially when he’s the one narrating, so I again highly recommend the audiobook version).
I’ve only started watching chef David Chang the past couple of years, when I first saw him guest star on The Chef Show with Roy Choi and Jon Favreau. I then watched his most famous show Ugly Delicious, and more recently, The Next Thing You Eat. But these (mainly) lighthearted food-oriented shows are a stark contrast from the deeply personal stories and thoughts that Chang offers here.
In the preface, Chang says something along the lines of him being afraid for you to read his book – and I understand why. He lays out all of the ugly details here, many of which are his own mistakes. The first part of the book is in classic memoir style, written in a more-or-less chronological order; he touches on his childhood, college, and culinary school experiences, then focuses on his time working in a restaurant, to finally becoming a restaurant owner. The second part then loses its chronological format, and to me became more of a series of essays, where he touches on an important topic/event in his life or the restaurant industry in general.
What Chang does really well is offer a stellar view of what it’s like to rise up the ranks and run a restaurant in a messed-up industry (all with the imposter syndrome he dealt still deals with). We’ve all heard about chefs yelling in kitchens à la Gordon Ramsey, but Chang goes into even more detail about how all the stressors that come from working as a chef, including racism and sexism to name a few, lead to drugs, alcoholism, and poor mental health for many young chefs. I truly appreciated Chang’s candor throughout this book; especially seen in the chapter where he shows you how he would have wanted to rewrite his history, and the chapter where he turns 35 years old.
Bottom line: the synergistic interaction between Chang’s turbulent life and all of the issues that come with working in a restaurant is what made this book so honest, heartbreaking, and hopeful.
