The Stranger

In a departure from out typical subject matter, today I will discuss a French classic from the 20th century, written by absurdist philosopher Albert Camus, The Stranger (L’Étranger).

This short novel shows us a few months in a life of one Mr. Mersault, a frenchman living in Algeria. The story starts with Mersault on his way to his mother’s funeral, where the interesting quirks of his character start showing. You see, Mersault is so disillusioned with life and so sure about the meaniglessness of it, that he decided to push back his feeling, deatach himself from them as a defense mechanism. At his mother’s funeral he doesn’t weep. He is sad, but he sees it as the natural order of things and spends most of the funeral, thinking about how annoyingly hot it is outside.

The whole novel is written from Mersault’s point of view in first person and I’d say it works great as a character study, but not so much as a story. we get a view into Mersault’s head, he shows us his thoughts and opinions on the world and envelops us in the waves of his existential nihilism. But that unfortunately leads to the whole book being told in this dreary monotone, that is extremely boring to read. Camus’s prose isn’t terribly comlex, so it isn’t difficult to read, just very boring. Mersault the „stranger from society“ stays a stranger from us too. We never develop an emotional attachment to this emotionless man and we don’t know how to feel about his end. Luckily, the novel is really short and you can get through it in one sitting, like an afternoon snack. the question is: Should you?

It quickly became apparent to me that Camus was first and foremost a philosopher. Shades of his philosophy of the absurd can be found all around Mersault. His neighbour who beats his dog and than has an emotional brekdown when the dog runs away. Marie who wants to marry a man, who said, that he doesn’t love her and finally Mersault himself. So if you’d like a compex character study mixed with philosophical contemplation, go for it, but if you’d like an enjoyable read with a good plot I’d recommend choosing something else.