The Stranger (1942)

I sort of knew what this classic was about, but there were still surprises. It is a thin book and reads quite easily. The short and dull sentences sometimes feel like a boring diary, sometimes it even makes it funny, but in the end it delivers the world through Meursault's eyes - nothing really matters, things just happen. I could relate to him in his inability (or reluctance?) to express emotions what everybody expects of him, but I could not related to him in his passivity.
The Stranger contains one of the best parts on captivity and capital punishment I have read so far. I also enjoyed the portrayal of the life's beautiful little moments and the summer evenings of Algiers. Meursault knew how to live in the moment. We are all the time taught to live in the moment, but this book makes me think that it's not enough with only that. ( )

It took me two years to drag myself through this book and I absolutely understand how beautifully written it is but I've also painstakingly (recall the two years) realised that I'm not (for the lack of a better word that surely exists but not in the very limited vocabulary that is served to me by my brain) "wise" enough to lap Camus up yet. ( )

SO BORING. I knew it was about nihilism, but I didn't know it was teaching you about nihilism by making you experience some miserable boring life in too much detail and feel the futility of existence as an extension of the pointlessness of reading this book. ( )

what an astounding book this is , it is definetely a page turner as well as an enjoyable read , now !
what i loved about the book is that it had a strong opening , great shaping and characterization , and , what i admired even more was the description of emotion and sentiment , that ; according to which enviorment or event the character (mersault) was thrown into , but i have to say , this wasn't what got me to love the book fully , what i truly was fond of , was the way , albert camus applied , nihilism , to mersault's character , life , decisions and so on , truly gives you insight on life , through the view of a nihlist , one that's views and decisions are not based on the values of the society he lives in , but by the absolute acceptance and aknowledgment of the meaninglesness of life and the non existent value of values and ethics , wonderful camus ! ( )

This short and shattering novel is about a murder on a beach and a man who is condemned not for what he has done but who he is.

This Penguin edition includes a brief afterword written by Camus in 1955 - 13 years after the book was published. Camus says that Meursault, the central character, is a man who refuses to lie and even compares him to Christ. This is curious as it suggests Camus had misremembered his own book. Meursault does lie and he is, in some respects, an unlikeable character. He agrees, for example, to take part in a deception, writing a letter to a girl on behalf of a friend, who is probably a pimp, so his friend can have sex with her and then assault her. After his friend is arrested for beating up the girl, Meursault provides a statement to the Police saying that she had been unfaithful, which he certainly does not know to be true.

But there is one thing Meursault does refuse to lie about - his emotions and responses to the world. He shows no emotion at his mother’s funeral. Asked by his girlfriend if he loves her he replies that it’s a meaningless question but probably not. Invited to show remorse for his crime he replies merely that he feels annoyance about it.

At his trial he is portrayed by the prosecution as the man who did not cry at his mother’s funeral and the next day went swimming, to a comedy film and then to bed with a new girlfriend. Failing to give the responses the system demands, refusing to live his life by society’s norms, in the eyes of the judge and jury these are far worse crimes than murder, and Meursault is found wanting for his character rather than his crime.

Written in deceptively simple prose, with not a wasted word, the Outsider is a powerful fable overflowing with philosophical resonance about the individual and society. ( )