Nausea

Rating:
Summary: The Plot Comes from Inside the Character
Review: This novel is a classic depiction of inner struggle, rather than outside torment. The plot mostly takes place within the mind of the hero, who represents self-consciousness in character form. Any reader of such narratives like this knows that the writers of such works are not celebrating themselves. In fact, they are probably the least likely people on earth to celebrate themselves, as their self-hatred is so intense and so evident. That, in itself, is a struggle worthy of a plot.

Rating:
Summary: Self-absorbed, but not self-admiring
Review: Antoine Roquentin, the protagonist of Sartre's "Nausea," is a man who stands in awe of himself. No, he's not an egotist or a narcissist in the self-admiring sense; he is completely and intensely absorbed in the contemplation of his own existence. That is to say, he constantly ponders the fact he exists, that there is a consciousness connected to a body whose collective name is Antoine Roquentin. For some, the reaction to such a realization might be wonder and amazement, perhaps an acknowledgement of the omnipotence of a higher power; for Antoine, the reaction is horror, a perception of the void enshrouding existence, leading to a feeling of what he calls nausea.

To evade the nausea, Antoine immerses himself in the study of those that have existed in the past, and he is currently in the city of Bouville (possibly a renamed Boulogne), France, researching the history of the Marquis de Rollebon, a courtier of Marie Antoinette and a most adventurous scoundrel. The ordinariness of Antoine's career emphasizes the absurdity of existence in a world designed for those who are content to live the unexamined life. At the local library, he makes the acquaintance of a Self-Taught Man (the only name by which he is known) who endeavors to educate himself by reading every book available to him, in alphabetical order. The Self-Taught Man, an ex-soldier who had spent some time as a prisoner of war, is the essence of bourgeois humanism and optimism; he mistakes Antoine's inquiries into existence for a search for the meaning of life. Another perspective on existence is given by Antoine's snide ex-girlfriend Anny, whose childhood experiences have led her to the conclusion that death, or dying, is a "privileged situation" because of the importance it is attributed not only in actuality but as the subject in so many works of art, where it is portrayed as the transcendence of existence.

Written in the style of a diary, "Nausea" reads like a memoir containing many personalized aphorisms about existence and its opposite, nothingness, which ironically also must exist; but these are too subjective to be universally useful. Rather, the novel's biggest triumph is the convincing expressiveness of Sartre's protagonist, who manages to convey in lucid language the ideas behind coming to terms with one's own existence. Antoine may be morose and introverted, but he is an excellent analyst of nature and has intellectual energy to spare.

Rating:
Summary: awful book, awful people, silly message
Review: Sartre built a career as a misanthropic intellectual. His characters (and his analyses) brim with the most total alienation imaginable, with the strong dose of narcissism that comes along with slef-declared geniuses. The protagonist of this novel is a bored scholar, researching an ancestor. He is incapable of love and in the grips of a depression and loathing that fill him with waves of nausea. That is it in this novel! There is meaning in nothing. The only thing I felt reading about these sick people was nausea - and boredom.

In writing a negative review of such a famous novel, I know there will be lots who disagree, but I am sick of novels like this that are held up by a national cultural establishment as "great," i.e. enhancing their international image, rather than works that should be read more openly and naively. You can tell the difference in so many media: look at Michelangelo and you immediately feel his genius, whereas if you fail to perceive the artistic "value" of many contemporary works, you are condemned as lacking the finesse and brains to see what you are told to see.

Not recommended. This is the ideal novel for a high school student to read ostentatiously, exhibiting some kind of "depth."