# Camus' "The Stranger"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 18, 2017, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452 "2017-03-18T01:09:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2017, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/1 "2017-03-18T01:09:32Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2017, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/2 "2017-03-18T04:06:47Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2017, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/3 "2017-03-18T16:47:46Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/4 "2017-03-18T17:21:21Z")
I had to read it in French for my lanuguage course…believe me I understood less than you!
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/5 "2017-03-18T18:27:01Z")
Here’s a bit of context, from Jon Savage’s book on 20th century youth, _Teenage_.
> [@](#):
>
> Silence was the preferred option for many French writers during the occupation. The apparently meaningless yet obstinate refusal to explain his crime by the unnamed hero of Albert Camus’s _L’etranger_ can be seen as parable of this facet of French life during the war.
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.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2017, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/6 "2017-03-19T15:57:33Z")
> [@Jinx](#):
>
> Or, is there another Camus novel or play you’d recommend I should read?
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.
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### Author:  [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/7 "2017-03-20T17:49:10Z")
> [@snoe](#):
>
> 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.
I agree, The Stranger was just okay but I really liked the Fall.
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### Author:  [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2017, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/8 "2017-03-21T05:05:55Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2017, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/9 "2017-03-21T06:14:10Z")
_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.
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### Author:  [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2017, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/10 "2017-03-21T11:59:10Z")
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.
Or, maybe it was, kinda.
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### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2017, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/11 "2017-03-29T23:33:50Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> 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.
This was the only thing that came to mind. Somehow, it was perceived as something great in its day, I wager.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2017, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/12 "2017-03-30T13:13:09Z")
Billy Joel’s “The Stranger,” on the other hand – now that’s a classic.
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### Author:  [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camus-the-stranger/782452/13 "2017-04-05T14:27:14Z")
Thank you for this. Now I know where the title of the TV show “The Fall” comes from. It’s been bugging me for a while.