Either/Or
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season1264 pages, about 25 hours: the length of 4.0 typical books on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbOne reader reports struggling to stay focused partway through the opening aphorisms.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 11 reviews from critics and book blogs, 2 credit the plot and 10 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesA reader compares its style to Henry Miller and Milan Kundera, whose The Unbearable Lightness of Being is on the shelf at 399 pages.
The case for it
on the binary choice
“the 1843 masterwork that furnished his insight into transcending the tyranny of binary choice”
Maria Popova · The Marginalian, 2020 on the Seducer’s Diary
“it is one of the most horrifying things Kierkegaard ever wrote”
a book blog on his commentary
“the value in his writing consists more in illuminating comments than in a final conclusion”
four stars · a book blog on rereading the diary
“this is one of those works that I will read again in a few years”
a book blog
The case against
on the early essays
“essays and narratives that may seem prolix, haphazard and rambling.”
a book blog on the aphorisms
“I’m struggling to stay focused when there are so many witty one-liners”
a Substack review on Judge William’s letters
“Judge William writes extremely long letters telling him to get a grip.”
a Substack review on the structure
“The structure bewilders readers who expect a treatise”
a book blog
