by Jean-Paul Sartre
1945
It's the first book in his Roads of Freedom trilogy. A very
meticulously planned novel, it centers around Mathieu, a disenchanted
college professor with a pregnant mistress. The character of Daniel,
the cruel and masochistic homosexual who hates himself, is one of the
great instigators in literature. Throughout the book, Mathieu trees to
be free, even though he doesn't know how to attain freedom. He sees
marriage as sacrificing his freedom, but has no clear alternatives.
There
are exceptional passages, such as when Mathieu goes up to Lola's
apartment after Boris has mistakenly reported her dead. The complex
network of occurrences takes place in the space of three days in the
book, so it's a very tight examination of its characters' minds. All in
all, a great work, the theme of which will hopefully be expounded on in
the second novel
four stars
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