Copenhagen Journal: The Philosopher's Last Walk

Kierkegaard’s birthplace is now a bank. Money and power were not what he traded in though his father, who felt continually in danger of being struck down, due to his own guilt, was a wealthy man whose success allowed his son to think and ultimately exist in a state of perpetual dread. Fear and Trembling sounds like the title of a book both father and son could have written. Death was Kierkegaard's patrimony and walking his medicine. He said "I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.” Significantly, Kierkegaard didn't like Berlin since it afforded so few toilets where he could relieve himself during a stroll. He also said “no observation will ever reveal what is worth investigating” and famously “subjectivity is truth."  Socrates, an ironist and gadfly was his model. Needless to say, "The Philosopher's Last Walk," which traces the signposts of Kierkegaard's life, is self-guided tour you won't want to miss. BTW, Elsinore was Kierkegaard's backyard.

read the Kirkus review of The Kafka Studies Department by Francis Levy

and also read Joan Baum's NPR review of The Kafka Studies Department