Reviews
"Brisk and perceptive...A fresh, invigorating look into complex minds and a unique time and place." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Praise for How To Live Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography "This charming biography shuffles incidents from Montaigne's life and essays into twenty thematic chapters . . . Bakewell clearly relishes the anthropological anecdotes that enliven Montaigne's work, but she handles equally well both his philosophical influences and the readers and interpreters who have guided the reception of the essays." -- The New Yorker "Serious, engaging, and so infectiously in love with its subject that I found myself racing to finish so I could start rereading the Essays themselves . . . It is hard to imagine a better introduction--or reintroduction--to Montaigne than Bakewell's book." --Lorin Stein, Harper's Magazine "Ms. Bakewell's new book, How to Live , is a biography, but in the form of a delightful conversation across the centuries." -- The New York Times "So artful is Bakewell's account of [Montaigne] that even skeptical readers may well come to share her admiration." -- The New York Times Book Review, "Brisk and perceptive...A fresh, invigorating look into complex minds and a unique time and place." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Bakewell brilliantly explains 20th-century existentialism through the extraordinary careers of the philosophers who devoted their lives and work to 'the task of responsible alertness' and 'questions of human identity, purpose, and freedom.' Through vivid characterizations and a clear distillation of dense philosophical concepts, Bakewell embeds the story of existentialism in the 'story of a whole European century,' dramatizing its central debates of authenticity, rebellion, freedom, and responsibility." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) Praise for How To Live Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography "This charming biography shuffles incidents from Montaigne's life and essays into twenty thematic chapters . . . Bakewell clearly relishes the anthropological anecdotes that enliven Montaigne's work, but she handles equally well both his philosophical influences and the readers and interpreters who have guided the reception of the essays." -- The New Yorker "Serious, engaging, and so infectiously in love with its subject that I found myself racing to finish so I could start rereading the Essays themselves . . . It is hard to imagine a better introduction--or reintroduction--to Montaigne than Bakewell's book." --Lorin Stein, Harper's Magazine "Ms. Bakewell's new book, How to Live , is a biography, but in the form of a delightful conversation across the centuries." -- The New York Times "So artful is Bakewell's account of [Montaigne] that even skeptical readers may well come to share her admiration." -- The New York Times Book Review, "Brisk and perceptive...A fresh, invigorating look into complex minds and a unique time and place." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Bakewell brilliantly explains 20th-century existentialism through the extraordinary careers of the philosophers who devoted their lives and work to 'the task of responsible alertness' and 'questions of human identity, purpose, and freedom.' Through vivid characterizations and a clear distillation of dense philosophical concepts, Bakewell embeds the story of existentialism in the 'story of a whole European century,' dramatizing its central debates of authenticity, rebellion, freedom, and responsibility." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Tremendous...rigorous and clarifying...Highly recommended for anyone who thinks." --Library Journal (starred review) Praise for How To Live Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography "This charming biography shuffles incidents from Montaigne's life and essays into twenty thematic chapters . . . Bakewell clearly relishes the anthropological anecdotes that enliven Montaigne's work, but she handles equally well both his philosophical influences and the readers and interpreters who have guided the reception of the essays." -- The New Yorker "Serious, engaging, and so infectiously in love with its subject that I found myself racing to finish so I could start rereading the Essays themselves . . . It is hard to imagine a better introduction--or reintroduction--to Montaigne than Bakewell's book." --Lorin Stein, Harper's Magazine "Ms. Bakewell's new book, How to Live , is a biography, but in the form of a delightful conversation across the centuries." -- The New York Times "So artful is Bakewell's account of [Montaigne] that even skeptical readers may well come to share her admiration." -- The New York Times Book Review, "Brisk and perceptive...A fresh, invigorating look into complex minds and a unique time and place." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Bakewell brilliantly explains 20th-century existentialism through the extraordinary careers of the philosophers who devoted their lives and work to 'the task of responsible alertness' and 'questions of human identity, purpose, and freedom.' Through vivid characterizations and a clear distillation of dense philosophical concepts, Bakewell embeds the story of existentialism in the 'story of a whole European century,' dramatizing its central debates of authenticity, rebellion, freedom, and responsibility." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Bakewell follows her celebrated study of Montaigne...with a lively appraisal of existentialism and its leading thinkers... [ At the Existentialist Café ] focuses upon key individuals--Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Martin Heidegger--and on their interactions with each other and with the historical circumstances of the harsh twentieth century. With coverage of friendship, travel, argument, tragedy, drugs, Paris, and, of course, lots of sex, Bakewell's biographical approach pays off... The result is an engaging story about a group of passionate thinkers, and a reminder of their continued relevance." - Booklist (starred review) "Tremendous...rigorous and clarifying...Highly recommended for anyone who thinks." --Library Journal (starred review) Praise for How To Live Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography "This charming biography shuffles incidents from Montaigne's life and essays into twenty thematic chapters . . . Bakewell clearly relishes the anthropological anecdotes that enliven Montaigne's work, but she handles equally well both his philosophical influences and the readers and interpreters who have guided the reception of the essays." -- The New Yorker "Serious, engaging, and so infectiously in love with its subject that I found myself racing to finish so I could start rereading the Essays themselves . . . It is hard to imagine a better introduction--or reintroduction--to Montaigne than Bakewell's book." --Lorin Stein, Harper's Magazine "Ms. Bakewell's new book, How to Live , is a biography, but in the form of a delightful conversation across the centuries." -- The New York Times "So artful is Bakewell's account of [Montaigne] that even skeptical readers may well come to share her admiration." -- The New York Times Book Review
