Customer Reviews

Albert Camus's the Stranger (Barron's Book Notes)

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The darkness and simplicity of this wonderful book are frequently misunderstood. Many readers find Merseault cold and emotionless, but this is not the case. Merseault displays emotion in his argument with the prison priest, and (big surprise) his feelings toward his mother.

Although he is put on trial for killing an Arab, Mersault is actually condemned for failing to grieve for his mother in public. Have any of you been to the funeral of an elderly realative? Sometimes, despite the emotions you feel for that person, the experience of the funeral is flat, meaningless and logical. All of the love came before the event and will come again many times later. But somehow a funeral leaves one dry and plain. Mersault experienced his mother's death for what it was: a dry and uncomfortable event. He did not put on a show for the people involved with the funeral or those who knew the deceased. His actions were plain and honest.

But Merseault does have feelings for his mother. When he learns much later that she had a lover in the elderly home she occupied he feels glad for her. That moment of empathy if an extrordinary act of comppassion. It is also a private one.

"The Stranger" reveals many simple truths about the kind of people we are and it raises questions about the inegrity behind our thoughts and actions. It is a wonderful book whose value is easily overlooked by people who only put stock in a verbose work.

A book about the "Absurd" hero... A man who can only enjoy the moment, with no thought of the future or the past, who does only what feels good at the moment... who is not ruled by the monotonous machinery of the world, who refuses to set routines... and yet becomes entangled in the impersonal machinery of society.

By the way, this book is about as un-autobiographical as is possible for a book to be. Yes, Camus grew up in Algiers and loved to swim, but he was primarily a thinker; he was utterly incapable of turning off his mind and thinking everything through. He philosophy was completely opposed to the Meursault's view of life. Yet, like me, he found in Meursault a certain honesty, of living consistently, without faking emotions and conventions. But it was ultimately against Meursault's attitude that Camus fought in his books and essays.

It is a philosophical novel, and no doubt people will be turned off by anything that challenges them, but definitely give this book a chance. It has more to say than all but a handful of books five times the length of this one. I read it almost ten years ago for school, and have read it a half dozen times since, as well as every other novel Camus wrote... those for my own enjoyment. Put aside that King book for a week and read one of the greatest books ever written.

"The Stranger" is a wonderful little book, filled with deceptively simple language and actions. It's understated, very subtle, and except for the outright atheist vs. church stuff at the end, you've really got to work for it. You can pick it up, read it in a night, put it down, and refuse to be affected...but if you listen, the meaning is in there, deep and dark, not didactic, more like a whisper.

The apparent indifference Mersault carries strikes one as inhuman: shrugging off his mother's death, swearing off the church, agreeing to marry in a heartbeat, and, most poignantly, accepting his fate - a death sentence. But the things Mersault is trying to say through the gaps between what's actually on the page is simple: it's all arbitrary, we're fools on a ball spinning around a star, and contentment is the simplest thing to feel amidst chaos.

Although the murder and the trial, and definitely the funeral, are fantastic moral-bending existentialist scenes, what sticks with you in the dark of night, is as simple as the prose and also as endlessly complex: we're here, we'll never understand each other, we see what's most convenient to see, and we all die in the end anyway, whether or not our tenure here can be marked as "good" or "bad" or "moral". Not the most uplifting read in the world, but literature is a cruel mistress sometimes.

This is one of my favorite books. I first read it in high school and fell in love with it. Mersault (the main character) finds himself guilty of murdering an Arab. The book soon reveals it is his lack of involvement in society that stands trial. I strongly recomend this books for those that are interested in existentialism.

This gives a good albeit brief synopsis of the book. I needed a good outline that I could use as a companion to teach from the book and this worked.

I picked up the book because I knew the author was an existentialist. When I read the book, I was shaken to my core; it was nearly as if I was looking into a mirror. Meursault is completely honest nearly all the time, is amiable enough, and accepts the absurdity and futility of life. That he is unmoved by the emotions that most people feel is not his fault, and that he will not fake them is to his credit; I am not so honest. When he (arguably) accidentally kills in a moment of panic, he becomes a victim of xenophobia, and is killed because he will not lie or pretend to have sensibilities that most people have the sense to fake. This book is depressing, I think, but this archetypical existentialist character has a lot to teach if one can understand his motivations--or lack thereof.
Incidentally, I highly recommend _The Plague_ as a second course; I haven't finished it yet, but it appears to show another archtypical existentialist behaving in a more life-affirming way--which may help me and anyone else who finds the absurd tedium of life pointless and tiresome.

This book was very very interesting considering the fact that the so called hero of the book was some what of a loon. But he can't really be considered a loon because simply of the way he looked at life and how it should be lived on a day by day and an imaginary way.

I had to do a paper on this book in which I researched Albert Camus. He wrote this book as an autobiography. The protagonist felt and acted as Camus would have, and ultimately showed Camus that he needed to change. There is nothing wrong with Mersault - he is just living life for his own enjoyment. Why should he care about god? A splendid book.

This book is about this man, Mersault finds himself guilty of killing an arab, later on blaah,... Its Intresting, but i very, VERY much dislike the main character's attitude, He is so cold, emotionaless(?). I found out that what I'm saying is very much like what others are saying so, well, this book is good.

this is a great book. i have read it a couple of times, and have always found easy to read, with an engaging plot and many interesting ideas. i also strongly identified with the atheistic hero.