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Rating: 
Summary: There is no fog in Paris in this novel
Review: However one disagrees with Sartre's philosophy, his Marxism, and his anti-Americanism, it is difficult to argue against his personal involvement in what he believed in. Sartre was no pipe-smoking, arm-chair academic content to let others do his fighting. He was always there on the front-lines, perhaps bellicose in his utterings, but always visible. An issue he disagreed with never experienced-his-absence, and Sartre did not hesitate to also be a novelist-philosopher, and as such, he showed more moral courage than perhaps any 20th century philosopher. The equality of idea and action was perhaps an axiom for Sartre, and his life was definitely an empirical validation of such. Definitely introspective to extremes, this novel, the second in his series "The Roads to Freedom", is the ultimate portrayal of life in France before the Munich Pact and the takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1938. As a reader, it is easy to get trapped in the stream of consciousness approach that Sartre takes in his novel. Each character is not to be found alone, but immersed in the quagmire of panic, and for some, exhiliration, at the prospect of wartime conflict. The characters define themselves by the instant, their attitudes caught in the flux, that flux impossible to arrest, but their choices completely free nonetheless. Their individuality is sometimes robbed by the gaze of the other, but captured again by choice. Ideology has a short time scale for them. Sartre does not really shout at the reader through his characters. But their predicament is believable. Their anxiety sometimes familiar, but they also have a perhaps hidden optimism. They know it is themselves, and no other, that determines their future history. The (burden?) of choice is with them always, and they understand fully the power of consequences. But choice works for them as well as against. This makes the appreciation of these characters easy and familiar.
Rating: 
Summary: the collective consciousness.
Review: The only thing I will comment (because I do not give away the book) is the writing style. If you are expecting "Age of Reason" part II, then you will not get what you were looking for...the writing style or mode is very different. The way the book is put together is there are many characters all in different parts of French territory in different walks of life, ages, sexes, etc. Often times when you are reading you will lose sight of where one character speaks or thinks and the next one. you will have to go line by line in the same paragraph, where a sentence ina paragraph represents a though of a different character and that character will not be identified...but you will know...but it becomes irrelevant who says or feels what because it is about the collective consciousness of french people in the midst of war...and this is the biggest success of the book is that this technique so succesful and masterfully implemented. It makes the book feel like events are happening so quickly and things are moving so fast which lends to the urgency of the situation in France. I feel like its a forrest fire...that starts with a brush and picks up momentum until its raging! There are new characters in this book and he has carried the old characters over. Please do yourself a favor and do not read the series out of order.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible.. Thought provoking!
Review: This is one of the most powerful works of literature that I've ever read. It combines a powerfully unique literary style, a philosophical dilemma threaded through lives of a set of well developed characters set against a background of one of the most important historical developments that has defined the rest of the 20th century. This is the kind of a book, where every other page "asks" to be quoted. It will wrench your heart, focus your mind and make you look inward questioning the significance of a man in the context of a historical momentum. Awe inspiring..!
Rating:
Summary: why appeasement doesn't work
Review: this is sartre's 2nd book in the "roads to freedom" series. i stongly suggest that you read them in order as one builds off the other. i liked this book alot, but it was not as powerful as "the age of reason"(see my review).
the books tells of the 5 days preceeding the munich agreement when all of europe was gearing up for war. a general knowledge of that historical moment would be very beneficial in understanding the book. unlike the 1st book which follows the traditional storytelling mode, this book jumps from scene to scene with great rapidity. these jumps can occur in the middle of a paragraph and sometimes in the middle of a sentence. this kaleidoscopic effect can be frustrating at first, but as you get comfortable with it and the various characters and story lines, it is very easy to catch the jumps. as a matter fact, it actually gives the storyline a much greater sense of movement and action than without it.
the title comes from the fact that the munich agreement does not really prevent the war as it was first thought it would do by the signators. it simply put off the inevitable. as a matter of fact, europe's giving up of czechoslovakian territory to hitler may have actually emboldened him to grab more territory, thereby starting the war. appeasement didn't work then either.
the individual stories cover a myriad of issues from cowardice to duty from both men's and women's perspectives. since it involves mainly the french, it even gives some historical insight into why the french are the way they are today.
both of these books show sartre as an excellent story teller who incorporates challenging and thoughtful themes that keep you pondering long after you have turned the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Munich, Sartre-style
Review: This is the sequel to "The Age of Reason", and I thought it was by far the better book. It's the story of Munich 1938, when war seemed inevitable as the crisis over Hitler's territorial demands on Czechoslovakia reached its peak. Sartre examines the feelings of a wide range of people through a time period of just over a week, feelings ranging from fear of a repeat of the 1914-1918 War, to the excitement of others who looked forward to conflict as a means of finally giving a meaning to their lives. Sartre's technique is to skip swiftly from scene to scene, and location to location, doing so sometimes within a sentence. It takes concentration on the part of the reader to follow this, but I found it increased the pace of the story, and gave a sort of kaleidoscopic effect - conflicting and contrasting attitudes are exposed more easily, as are the differences between social classes, and even between nationalities. The book is a damning indictment of appeasement, and of France and Britain's lack of courage in the face of the rise of fascism. But at the same time as condemning the appeasers, Sartre is sensitive enough to understand why people felt the way they did, and that includes the appeasers themselves - perhaps the appeasers too were trapped by the ambiguity of their own and their public's opinions, lacking the freedom to do what was right. The add to the praise, the book's ending is great too.
Rating:
Summary: the collective consciousness.
Review: What is war other than as it exists in the minds of the people who experience it? Sartre explains that in order to locate it, one would have to be everywhere at once, which is precisely what this novel permits its readers. This text, which is a complex weaving of the psychological states and experiences of a diversity of people who are forced to anticipate and conceptualize war, sheds light not only on the events leading to WWII, but the events which shaped Sartre as a writer and philosopher. A novel that could be read a thousand times, it contextualizes existentialism as a philosophy and serves as a framework for understanding the evolution and existence of existentialist thought.
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