Disclaimer: This is not a homework assignment. I am trying to catch up on classics I should have read somewhere along the line, especially foreign authors. I just finished “The Stranger”, and I was underwhelmed. Granted, what little I heard about this book came from a brief mention in a psychology class of yesteryear. I was led to believe the story was more along the lines to Billy Joel’s “The Stranger”. That said, I was expecting some insightful philosophical statement on human nature. But, I got nothing. Even the ending (up to the very last line) left me flat.
Can anyone tell me what was so great about this book because it clearly eluded me. Also, I checked out Camus’ “The Plague” from the library at the same time. Should I bother? Or, is there another Camus novel or play you’d recommend I should read?
It’s been a while since I read The Stranger; someone else will do a better job explaining why it’s important/good than I will.
The Camus book that engaged me most was “The Fall.” Very short. The voice is second person (“you”), which is unusual and unnerving. (The device was used a couple years ago in “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.”) A dark, creepy, misanthropic little story.
No, you’re right. The Stranger blows. Simple as that.
It’s one of those books that you’re supposed to read to prove you’re an intellectual. All that stuff about Mersault “searching for the sun” meaning absolute truth is bullshit. The book is really just a painful slog through the thoughts of a sociopathic asshole.
Maybe when this book first came out it was groundbreaking. But now, we have more than enough books about sociopathic assholes that aren’t nearly as boring and implausible.
Here’s a bit of context, from Jon Savage’s book on 20th century youth, Teenage.
Books can be timely or timeless and succeed. A few do both, somehow. But if a book is written for and about the immediate world around the writer, it can be almost impossible for outsiders to understand the context.
Actually, I’d recommend reading Sartre’s *Nausea *next. If you want to know better what Camus was getting at, though,you should read The Myth of Sisyphus rather than another novel.
I really liked “The First Man”, his last book, unfinished when he died. It’s heavily autobiographical about growing up poor in Algiers. Narrative, non philosophical.
The Stranger was one of my favorite books in high school, and I think I read it 2 to 3 times (in English). I think I’d need to read it again in order to make a mature assessment.
But what I remember liking is the vibe of the book. I think it’s message is carried more by the atmosphere than by any explicitly stated philosophy. That’s my $0.02 going on very old memory.
I read it for French class, as well, and I remember enjoying it quite a bit more than most of the stuff we had to read for English class. At least it wasn’t about some boring high society person and whether or not they fit into society.