What a brilliant book. Simple yet touched so deep in you! Loved it. Now I want to read all his books! ( )

I'd learned of this book while watching a film whose main character was a respected literature professor. Unfamiliar with the author and knowledge is was deemed a classic, I checked in out from the library. Of the hundreds of books read over the years, of which many are Pulitzer winners this book ranks at the bottom. Books written in a foreign language can be challenging since translations vary. The heart of good stories are well developed characters, engaging plots and in some cases, surprises. Since this book possesses none of this I'm baffled how it's categorized as a classic. ( )

I feel like I have to justify this 3 star review.

I understand what Camus is getting at throughout his novella. It's an intro to existentialism staple. Mersault, the impassive and free-willed main character doomed from the beginning because society does not understand his tenets of living, takes us on his journey of coming to terms with the possibilities of his conciousness. A heightened embodiment of the existential mantra, Meursault skirts between the line of a hilariously personified existential body, to a vague, watered-down shadow of it. Perhaps that was Camus' genius: create a character just relatable enough to see the persecution of such a radical philosophy (you may argue it's not, but I'm not here to go into the finer points of it) and take us unknowingly into his mind to sympathize.

I think my problem lies entirely with me. I'm not a fan of existentialism. I think there's too much meaning in the world and I revel in the supernatural, the love of others, and the pain therein. I can get a hold of the idea of being alone in the universe, and I think that's a pretty swell way to put it, but that'll never lesson my drive to become as attached as I can to others.

Therein lies the rub: I don't identify with this struggle to the extent Camus' explored. I am quite in the fashion of enjoying the emotions of life and I think that made it so I did not enjoy this as much as I should have. It was a fine read, beyond intelligent and creative with how these ideas were presented, but it just wasn't for me. I think that's the problem with philosophical books, it's a hit or a miss when you're dealing with something so heady as an entire fashion of thought and consciousness. I'll probably pick it up again in a few years if I'm being honest, but for now, it's a tentative 3 for me. Where's my sun beaten breakdown with red between my eyes and a mad dash to the 5 star button so I stop feeling so damned outta the loop about this thing? ( )

Främlingen handlar om en vanlig människa i det koloniala Algeriet, Meursault (Mersault i den första svenska översättningen), vars mor dör på ett sjukhem. Meursault har aldrig haft särskilt mycket tid att vara tillsammans med henne, eftersom han är fattig och resan till sjukhemmet tar flera timmar. Folk i omgivningen anser att han inte sörjer sin mors bortgång och förebrår honom för detta.

Fun fact: While I was reading the book, a lot of the behaviours and reasonings of Merault made me think of a person with Aspergers,and after doing some research it turns out that there is evidence that the character was based on Camus' friend who had Aspergers.

In The Stranger, the main character Meursault is a nihilist who believes that life has no meaning. He lives detached from the people around him and does not care about his life, family, or friends. He does not abide by society's rules or expectations. This ultimately seems not to be a choice he makes,but rather a lack of understanding on this part.

We see a transition happen throughout the novel where towards the end, Meursault is no longer indifferent towards the world's indifference. Instead, he embraces it. He realizes that regardless of what people think of him individually, even if they hate him, the human race at large is his companion because every life could turn out every way, and so they are all united even though they happened to turn out this way.

Meurault plays with the idea of human interchangeability. Yet, when he first mentions this idea at the beginning of the book, he does so in an apathetic and indifferent manner. Towards the end however, Meursault describes this passionately, as an ideal of human equality. That is because your life could have turned out any way, but it just happened to turn out this way, and therefore you must treasure it and accept it for what it is.

Aaah There is so much more to this book that I am probably missing. All in all, a powerful narrative that I will undoubtedly revisit in the future ( )