An ordinary man is unwittingly caught up in a senseless murder in Algeria.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: First masterpiece from Albert Camus; L'Étranger (1942) Comment: The Outsider was first published in Paris in 1942 and would cement it's author's reputation as one of the most intelligent and imaginative writers of the 20th century. It also remains one the best introductions to the realm of existentialist literature - or that so-called sub-genre they dubbed the philosophical novella - in that it combines certain theoretical ideas that were established in the early writings of Jean-Paul Sartre (particularly his novel Nausea and his short story collection, Le Mur) with a more defined sense of narrative, character and attitude towards politics and morality. Because of this, the story is simplified to the point of non-existence, as J.G. Ballard notes in his personal blurb (surmised on the back of the Penguin Classics publication) "it's the story of a beach murder... blood and sand" which, despite giving away a central plot point of the book, destroys none of the tension or emotional connection that we feel for the central character.
It is Camus' genius in pruning the story down to a bare minimum of scenes and supporting characters that gives the book any social or philosophical weight; with the ramifications of the act and the underlining attitude of our protagonist Meursault defining the crux of the book's theoretical debate over notions of narrative unfolding, etc. The slightness of actual narrative (and I use this term lightly, since many great books have needed very little in the way of story to entrance a reader) and the fact that at a mere 118 pages it remains one of the shortest works of fiction, will no doubt alienate many potential readers; which to me, is a great shame. Camus knows that it is the simplicity of the story and the matter-of-fact way in which he uses his prose to detail this bland everyday existence of our "hero" that will elevate his plight come the closing chapters of the book. In this respect, it reminded me very much of Kieslowski's masterpiece A Short Film About Killing, in that we are introduced to this character who, although warm and to some degree capable of love and tenderness (particularly here, if we look at his various relationships throughout the book with Raymond, Marie, even old Salamano, et al), is withdrawn from the world around him and lost within the trivialities of existence; the sun, the beach and the waves.
Camus argument, paraphrased in his after word as the mere notion that "...any man that doesn't cry at his mother's funeral is liable to be condemned to death" acts as a blistering indictment of the judicial system of 1940's Algiers (in the same way that Kieslowski's afore-mentioned film lamented early-80's Poland), as well as the notion of atheism (lets not forget that Sartre described existentialism as "the attempt to draw all the consequences from a position of consistent atheism"), mortality and the importance of fact in the eyes of those that bend the truth to suit their own view of life, seen through the eyes of a character who is so removed from the world around him that he is incapable of bending the truth, even if the truth will only incriminate him further within the misdeeds of the past. Camus book remains as intelligent and relevant today as it did back in 1942, and offers the reader an enticing theoretical parable, relating to the notions of the social and historical unjust.
The writing throughout is atmospheric, and captures the plight of our narrator Meursault, with whom me share a combination of sadness, empathy, pity and remorse. As Ballard points out in his brief summation, this is one of the century's classic novels, which, in my opinion, deserves to be experienced by as many people as possible. Customer Rating: Summary: Don't get me wrong, great book and all, but... Comment: Reviews of this novel tend to be split between thoughtful people who think it's a masterpiece about man's destiny and the indifference of society to human suffering, arguably less thoughtful people who think it doesn't make sense, and one or two rabid Francophobes who just hate the fact that there are French people. The reality is maybe a little more complex.
The Stranger is a great book when you're a certain kind of teenager. Camus writes extraordinary well about loneliness and indifference; the first part of the book is, among other things, one of the all-time great hymns in praise of slacking. No wonder that the book goes on striking a chord in generation after generation.
However, readers who think that the book is saying something universal about humanity might consider that, among other things, this book is set very firmly in French Algeria. Some readers appear to believe that Meursault kills the nameless Arab guy in self-defence, but he doesn't. He just kills him. Meursault is not so harmless or saintly a character as he first appears to be, even as Camus thought he was; Camus once said in an interview that he admired Meursault because he refused to lie, but Meursault has no problem lying about various things throughout the course of the book. The one thing he is honest about is how he feels about things, but you might want to weight that honesty against his indifference to the suffering of his neighbour's girlfriend.
Remember that what plot there is, in the first half of the book, turns on Meursault letting himself get involved in his neighbour Raymond's troubles with his Arab girlfriend. Meursault and Marie overhear Raymond beating his girlfriend up, and Meursault declines to intervene, even when Marie suggests that he does so. Raymond's girlfriend (like all the Arabs in the book, she is never named) goes back to her family, and Raymond rightly or wrongly becomes convinced that they will kill him. Meursault comes along with him on the beach to meet the girl's brother(s), and when one of them starts to walk towards them, Meursault shoots him dead. It's hard to see what threat the guy posed; he certainly wasn't attacking them at the time. The problematic thing at the heart of the story is Meursault's total indifference towards the Arab guy.
The second half of the book is, historically speaking, wildly implausible. No white man in French Algeria would have been sentenced to death for killing an Arab, it's as simple as that. Camus never really seems to have realised this; when the Algerian war of liberation started, he publicly declared that he sided with the French because he wanted to protect his mother. It was the political blindspot he had for his entire career.
So yeah, it's a great book, beautifully written, but it's not very plausible, and it has a disturbing and apparently almost unconscious undercurrent of racism. Unconscious because, while the book is probably a very accurate projection of the piednoirs' attitude to the Arabs, Camus doesn't appear to have intended it as such. For my money, his essays are better than his fiction. This is a very good translation, though. Customer Rating: Summary: Classic Comment: A classic book by French standards - not sure what a previous reviewer means by American standards. Specific nationality is not the point here - Mersault could just have well been sentenced to death in the name of the American people as opposed to the French. In fact, these days perhaps the former is more relevant. Customer Rating: Summary: Beware Comment: This is the same story but I believe a different translation of "The Outsider" by Albert Camus. Customer Rating: Summary: A magnificent book, pity about some of its readers... Comment: I have never felt the need to comment on reviews posted by others on this site, but I feel that Ted Rushton's review of The Stranger is a disgrace and I am amazed that Amazon have seen fit to publish his offensive and ill-informed half-witted drivel. Anyone who can use the moronic term "surrender monkeys" in a review of a book should confine themselves to the latest piece of trash by Frederick Forsyth and steer clear of authors of the calibre of Camus, whose ideas are clearly beyond him.
Even if Mersault could be seen as exemplifying the attitudes of the French people - and he clearly exemplifies nothing of the sort - Mr Rushton's anti-French tirade crumbles when you consider some facts he omits to mention. Firstly, Camus himself was active in the resistance during the war and also edited, at considerable risk, the clandestine journal Combat. Secondly Camus' The Plague is an allegory of occupation and resistance and, despite Mr Rushton's assertions to the contrary, exhibits considerable moral bravery. Then he should consider Sartre's Roads to Freedom trilogy, three books which concern themselves unflinchingly with issues of engagement, commitment and resistance.
In any case what philosophy could be more brave than existentialism, a philosophy that rejects the safety net of God and all other transcendental metaphysical fairy tales and insists that man is morally responsible for his own actions and the consequences thereof?
And by the way, as an Englishman who has travelled in France I can assure Mr R that the French do not hate the English and we - apart from a few tabliod reading idiots - do not hate them either.
The Stranger itself is one of the great books of the 20th Century: a masterful study of a man who refuses to conform to the false values and hypocrisy of mass self-assured organised society and ultimately pays the consequences for his bravery in refusing to "fit in". The court room scene is one of the finest pieces of writing you will ever come across, and the book as a whole is beautifully written, intensely moving, and ultimately uplifting.
Buy the book and ignore Mr Rushton's vile "review"
