I awaited the publication date of this book with great
anticipation, I even pre-ordered it. I thoroughly enjoyed John Kaag’s previous
book, American Philosophy: A Love Story. What drew me in was that it was a fantastic
blend of the American philosophical history that I was unaware of, a very nice
love story, and a story of self-discovery. It was a brave and honest narrative
of Kaag’s adventures in rediscovering some American philosophers. His rediscovery
was my discovery.
This book, even though the author sees it as a continuation
of his self-discovery and honest revelations, was different to me. He has moved
the emphasis to Europe, a more familiar philosophical ground but his focus was
on Nietzsche, a profoundly difficult and intimidating writer and thinker. It
takes a lot of attention from the reader to be prepared for the kind of mental
gymnastics that Nietzsche presents.
This book also allows us to look at the inner turmoil within
the author, his relationship with his father, his emotional fragility when he
was much younger and the pilgrimage he took as a young man to the very same
places he is revisiting as an older man and presumably a man who is more able
to deal with the emotions and thoughts that had tortured him as a young man. I sometimes
felt like a voyeur peeking into places I really should not peek into while I
read the book.
The reading did not begin auspiciously, I was quite often distracted
and the narrative did not grab hold of my attention as I thought it would. I struggled
with the whole imposing reputation and darkness of vision that is attributed to
Nietzsche. While the oscillation between Kaag’s remembrances of his past journey
and his present journey served as good juxtaposition for the advancement of his
story, it made my mind fatigued. I took a very long and circuitous route; I laid
the book down often and I ignored it for a number of months.
I started the book while it was late Autumn, as the dark of Winter
started to envelope us. The weather reflected Nietzsche’s visions, which made
it difficult to mentally absorb the words. I finished the book in late April,
my perspective became more enlightened and my mental state became less dark and
the messages from the book became more absorbed as I made my way through it. It
may also be that the initial chapters of the book reflected the dark weather,
which I allowed to affect my mental moods.
In the end, I loved the book, I will be re-reading it later,
in sequence with Kaag’s earlier book so that I may pursue his thought process
completely. It wasn’t just the change in
weather that turned it, it was also the author’s patient and expert explanation
and interpretation of Nietzsche’s ideas, his erudite unraveling of the
complicated original writing and the inclusion of many other stories, those of
his family and of other historical characters that ably illustrated his points
and served as supporting narratives to the main ones.
The author’s inclusion of Hesse in the last portion of the
book was particularly welcomed to me as I adored Hesse’s books as a young man.
Explaining Nietzsche through the conduit of Hesse’ writing was meaningful to me
personally and I believe that Hesse had the foresight and story telling ability
to interpret Nietzsche without diminishing the impact of Nietzsche’s thoughts.
This last part of the book made clear the intent of the
author’s thesis, and the second part of the book title: On Becoming Who You
Are. It was inspiring and enlightening to get to the unifying thought which
binds the philosophy to the narrative. The author did a magnificent job of
tying up his thoughts about Nietzsche, his own life, and Nietzsche’s
philosophy, it made the difficult journey worthwhile for me, even though I
suspect I made the journey difficult on my own. But no matter, I understood the
point and enjoyed the book in the end.
