Although I enjoyed this novel, it was not up to the standard of some of his other works (When Nietzsche Wept, etc.). Addressing the philosophy of Schopenhauer, who is often called the “pessimistic German” in the form of a novel is difficult, for unlike other philosophers, it would be difficult to apply Schopenhauer’s view of life and do anything other than commit suicide (in my view). Schopenhauer’s outlook on life reflected his life experience; brilliant, yet rude, self-centered, dogmatic and ill at ease in society and rejected by the two “loves” of his life, he lived a life alone, unloved and unloving. Any attempt by anyone to reach out to him was viewed with the utmost suspicion and mistrust, even to the point of rejecting the advice of his publicist who suggested his changing the overly long and non-descript title of his works. It was not until late in his life that he was “discovered” and when that happened, financial security was his for the first time in his life. As often happens, that security did impact his life and he became moderately more sociable, etc. He strongly influenced European intellectual thought, unfortunately not for the best.
The novel is centered around a physician/psychiatrist (Julius)who finds that he has a terminal illness. Fortunately for him, he enjoys his work and decides to continue his trade to the end (he realizes that happy is the man who continues his course when faced with adversity). Thus, we view one of his therapy groups and a former patient (unsuccessfully consoled) who is an adherent of Schopenhauer and brought into the group. We view the interchange between the members of the therapy group and the new member as Julius attempts to hold the group together when the unnamed philosophy of Schopenhauer is interjected into the group. At times the dialog can be a bit tiring, but it is interesting enough to keep you involved as you want to see where the entire group is moving.
I would recommend this novel for anyone who is interested in a crash course on Schopenhauer (just don’t read it when you are in a bad mood). One of the keys of his philosophy is that life is a temporary condition with a permanent solution. While it is true, he does not offer a solution which gives a positive option to life, but does provide hope after life; unfortunately, not one that will make you feel a whole lot better.
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