The Stranger
by Albert Camus
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Almost anyone can relate to life's absurdities which French Nobel Prize-winning author, journalist and philosopher Albert Camus conveyed with such brilliance.
The narrator of this is Meursault, a French Algerian. Unconcerned about how others see him, Meursault always speaks his mind, so is seen by society as a stranger because of his frank indifference.
Meursault is no less indifferent to learning of his mother's death, by telegram, as anything else. After attending her funeral, he kills an Arab man and when tried is openly remorseless. The tale is told two parts: Meursault's point of view before and after the murder.
For this reader, it's not so much the particular tale that he's telling, the places or the people, it's the subtext to it all, the message behind his tale. In fact, it's what he's not saying (because he doesn't need to spell it out) that resonates.
Though Camus famously refused to be labelled an 'existentialist' writer, this 1942 book became the inspiration behind so many such works. I really wanted to meet the man, share a carafe of wine in some rundown old place by the sea and lend him my ear.
The Stranger remains a timeless classic which deserves not to be skipped by anyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment