Today, very few readers read Sartre, Camus or Beauvoir, in their original yet they know them, they know a few bits of their lives and may have an opinion on ‘existentialism.’ Some people associate it with nihilism, freedom or a conversation about the banality and mundane. ‘The Existentialist Cafe,’ is an in-depth introduction to existentialism, about which we know in parts and pieces. It is a biography of Existentialism as a philosophy as lived by its philosophers. It is an intimate way of creating interest in the gone writers and philosophers, who have left a profound impact on our lives, even though, we don’t know them. Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, Karl Jasper, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Hannah Arendt, are all there in the book by Sarah Bakewell, glance at their writings, relationship with each other, their lived lives, and reflections on each other’s worldview.

It is like viewing a philosopher in relation with the other, where they complement, where they depart and the reasons behind those differences. In the book, one learns, how Beauvoir viewed Camus, an ethical philosopher and how she and Sartre differed from him. And then you learn about the contribution of Merleau Ponty to both psychology and philosophy, where expands on the impact of early childhood experiences on the making of our being. There is a discussion on whose view to endorse, Sartre, takes the view that we should perceive the world and ideas from the eyes of the most oppressed, even though at times it may mean endorsement of violence to bring change, this is where he differed from Camus, who was against all forms of violence including the one perpetuated for a just cause or by the state for punishment.

The premise of existentialism is that we assert our existence by living, not just by thinking. By making choices and asking questions to make those choices, we assert our ‘being’ and freedom. A lot of times those choices are a ‘leap of faith,’ as Soren Kierkegaard put forward, and it is important to leap to the unknown, to assert our existence.