The Stranger by Albert Camus
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Book Reviews of The Stranger
Book Review: Emotional Annihilation as Prose
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not a philosopher, quite honestly I stumbled into the world of self studied existensialism as I was finishing college where I specialized in Social Psychology. A professor saw me reading Sartre's 'No Exit' and recommended it to me. A year later I read The Stranger.
The Stranger is the manifesto of complete alienation and the absurdity of feeling and emotion in human life. These are important ideas to grasp as you read existensialism, absurdity, Zen Buddhism or Philosophical Marxism. Merely saying the word 'alienation' is one thing. This small 120+ page book so thoroughly, poetically and sadly draws the reader first person into the existence of someone completely alienated from the world that you experience it.
I understand the low reviews from some people. The annihilation of emotion is not one easily grasped or comfortably dealt with, and it is one many people will hopefully never fall into, yet it is one that is needed to be understood by many to come to grips with the absurdity that grasps many of our everyday experiences.
A major lesson from Sartre's drama 'No Exit' is the lesson of the powerful impact of other people's judgements on the shaping of who we are, and that a form of Hell is the inability to escape each others judgements. 'No Exit' loses some impact in that as a drama it is entirely expressed in the third person. The power of 'The Stranger' is that the reader is immeresed as a participant. Page by page you become an actor, a witness, the only mirror to Meursault's world of nihilism. The reader creates and is immerssed at once in Meursault's Hell.
This book is eloquent, beautiful and the power of it is that you as the reader have to supply the emotion to the story. It's your ever growing awakening of sadness and shame to the human condition that will change you forever while reading it.
On a lighter note it is also the inspiration for the song 'Killing an Arab' by The Cure.
Book Review: Life-changing work.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Stranger changed my worldview (Weltschauen?) by changing me. If you'd care to analyze Mersault with me for a second, you'll notice that one of his main characteristics is that he doesn't care what other people think of him. His thoughts and actions are not dictated by the reactions it may elicit from those around him. Also, he is completely honest with himself and doesn't delude himself into thinking that he feels emotions which are actually not forthcoming. For example he doesn't either mourn or pretend to mourn at his mother's funeral. It may make other people think of him as a cold, uncaring person, but as far as he's concerned, at least in my opinion, she died when they stopped seeing each other.
What Mersault does care about is experiencing the simple pleasures in life, and, in the process, fulfills whatever mundane obligations are necessary to for him to survive in either a civilized bourgeouis society or a jail. In other words, if you let him live life as he sees fit, he won't cause any trouble and will even help you when he feels it is necessary to do so. When unavoidable constraints are placed upon him, such as not being able to smoke in jail, he acclimates himself to the constraints and goes on experiencing whatever simple pleasures are possible in a jail cell. However, if cause him trouble for no reason or try to convert him to your way of living or thinking, he'll defend himself and take the offensive when the opportunity arises. Mersault does what he wants. If you deliberately try to get in his way, watch out.
What I'm trying to say here is that Mersault was as free as any human could possibly be. He viewed the world something he could enjoy living in no matter what conditions he was living under. If other people didn't like him for it, so what. Life was made to be enjoyed, not worried or mourned over.
So, in conclusion, I guess it changed my world view by giving me a philosophy of how to live my life in it.
Book Review: worth rereading.
Summary: 5 Stars
When it became known that President Bush recently read the Stranger, one comedian remarked that he was happy that the president was finally completing his ninth grade reading list. Like many students, I read this book in high school, enjoyed it, and then decided to read it again as I had forgetten much of the plot. The book remains of interest too me still many years after reading it in high school. As is well known, existential themes such as choices and their consequences, and individual subjectivity are quite prominent, yet the novel is more than simply a philospophical treatise. It flows easily and is quite short but the reader can spend a great deal of time considering the questions raised by the stranger. The story's protagonist, Mersault, is a young Algerian very detached both from his personal emotions and from the traditional values one expects in society. One does however feel that there is a certain sincerity to many of his actions. There is no outward show or pretense, he says and does what he feels. The book begins as he attends his mother's funeral and behaves somewhat indifferently. He cared for her, but they had little in common and he doesn't consider showing any grief that he doesn't truly feel. He then forms an attachment to a young woman who loves him. He says he will marry her if that is what she wants, but again he behaves very ambivalently. In the second half of the novel, Mersault, through a chain of unlikely and unfortunate circumstances commits a crime. The plot then focuses on his trial and societies' outrage not only at his crime, but for the untraditional behaviour he exhibited in the novel's beginning. He is portrayed as an uncaring and unfeeling monster by the lawyers. The reader believes that this is too harsh a judgement, but then how can he be characterized? I think that this is the question that makes this a very rich novel whether you are a high school student, or president BushBook Review: The Stranger Review
Summary: 5 Stars
When I first started reading it I was a little confused, hoping that each new page I turned would say something that would point to the actual purpose of the book. I didn't think it was a bad book I just simply didn't see any real point to it. 'Why would anyone write a book like this?' I thought to myself. 'I mean Meursault is just a completely self-centered loser, indifferent to life itself.' By the last chapter, however, when he is pondering about his imminent execution, the literacy styles describing the concepts of life and death towards an ordinary person with no real biases towards the world whatsoever, was so thought-proving and beautiful that it probably could have made Clint Eastwood cry within the movie Grand Torino. After finishing the book, however, I was still a little confused about what the point of the work was. Still even 3 days later, I was still pondering about it, replaying each chapter over in my head--which is always a definite sign of a good book. Finally, I came to possibly my first logical conclusion: Meursault's thoughts as he was waiting to be executed finally resulted in a basic theme of "well, we all gotta die sometime, so really, no big deal." Moreover, I think the author was indirectly trying to imply that "yeah, we all going to die sometime, therefore, it's not actually death--how it's how or when you die--that's important, but, what you do on this earth and in life is important." I believe that Meursault's final statement, "For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration", characterized that theme up perfectly. It left me with the impression that Meursault has his final opportunity to make something memorable and meaningful out of his life, even if it was only his execution.Book Review: All difference must be eliminated. Do away with the stranger
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book once when I was young and then again two years ago. Two different translations: the first one I read was called The Outsider, the second one, The Stranger.
Now we are reading it in French and discussing it in class. The writing is much more beautiful in French.
In year 2000, there was a survey amongst 6000 French readers. The question was: " Which book, do you think, is the best of 20th century? " French readers picked L'Étranger. I agree. The Stranger is, in my opinion, the best book written in 20th century. The complexity of human nature tackled with the simplest of writings. It is beautiful to read, heart-wrenching to contemplate.
And which book has ever been able to beat this opening line:
"Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas."
("Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know.")
If I could compare this book (and its protagonist) to any other book I've read, I would choose Graham Greene's A Burnt Out Case and its architect Querry.
We are not very good at dealing with the different, the outsider, the stranger. And since there is more of us, we find a way of making them miserable, not letting them be, forcing them to be like us, trying to neutralize them, to make them ordinary, to reduce them. When they slip, we use the opportunity to get rid of them for good. (In the case of Graham Greene's Querry, he didn't even have to slip. We can always make things up.)
Meursault killed a man. In his trial we say, in fact try to use it as evidence, that he did not cry in his mother's funeral.
We are merciless when it comes to the different. I know, by first hand experience, how cruel we can be when we encounter the stranger.