Book #3 Catcher in the Rye (PearlJamfan80)

Book #4 The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Bondcfh007)






"Of course, I realized it was absurd to feel like this, considering that, after all, it was I who was the criminal. However, as he continued talking, I did my best to understand, and I gathered that there was only one point in my confession that badly needed clearing up--the fact that I'd waited before firing the second time. All the rest was, so to speak, quite in order; but that completely baffled him."


The Stranger, a work of absurd fiction, by Albert Camus details the final days of a young calloused, indifferent, atheist named Meaurasalt. The story is told via the first person limited perspective of Meaurasalt. I find it interesting that Camus, being a philospher and scholar, didn't use dense prose, but instead chose to use prose that is more in the mold of the short, bare prose styles of Turgenev and Hemingway. A wonderful departure from the richly saturated prose style of Fitzgerald.


From the beginning Camus is posing questions to the reader: what is truth, what matters if you, yourself do not attribute meaning to something, and what is this world if God does not exist? The people Meaurasalt meet after the death of his mother are far more affected than he is. Posing the heavy philosophical question of what has meaning if the son of a dead mother is visibly unconcerned. When Marie asks Meaurasalt to marry him, he agrees, but in a very subdued manner, acting as if the question is similar to being asked if he would like to attend a movie later that day. When Meaurasalt shoots the Arab with a hand gun, it isn’t an act of vengeance, but a reaction to the intense, blinding rays of the afternoon sun. The climatic scene contains a meeting between Meaurasalt and a priest as he awaits his execution. He constantly refuses the benedictions from the Priest and finally, after his yelling escalates, the gaurds run and the priest is sent away.


Being an atheist and an occasional reader of existential philosophy (not a big fan of reading philosophy) The Stranger has been a novel I strongly related to. Camus takes the principles of existentialism and tosses them into the real world. It’s his way of saying that if the only meaning this cold, unflinching world has is those you give it, then what would happen if you were unable to give the world any meaning. I think this was Camus telling readers to give the world meaning, and acknowledge the indifference of the universe because if you don’t it will turn on you. Life and the world are too complex for us to fully understand.


"With death so near, Mother must have felt like someone on the brink of freedom, ready to start life all over again. No one, no one in the world had any right to weep for her. And I, too, felt ready to start life all over again. It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe."

some are satin some are steel, some are silk and some are leather

I haven't read this one, but could you correct the 08 to 80? Thanks.

Yeah, my bad.

I need to read this, too.

It's all good.

I read this book over the summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's one of those books that is so well written that I wish I could read it in its original French. Great book.

One of the finest books I've ever read. I see a lot of the main character in a lot of people these days. The last lines of both parts are incredible, especially the very last line. A masterpiece.

This is my second favorite book of all time, next to One Hundred Years of Solitude. I only know one other person who likes the book - everyone else I know thinks it is pointless. I never understood that, because I think there is a little bit of Mersault in everyone. Maybe his character is an exaggerated version of us, but we are all like Mersault in some way, IMO. I think the excellent write-up by jwfocker summed up why I think this book is so important better than I ever could:

Dude, I need to read this book. Because One Hundred Years is my favorite, too.

Camus was in a way like Pearl Jam. Here is a guy who grew up within a standard and then blew up these very doors by outgrowing them. The fact that he outgrew a movement is huge to me. I think we can all relate to that feeling. What has been mentioned is what is important right now. Camus tapped into a felling we can all relate to. Philosophy is one thing, but relating that very philosophy to real life is what is so difficult and that is why the Stranger is so monumental. It is a humanist view of existialism.


In a way, this is what who you are is about.

excellent write up so I have little to add other than to read The Plague, which looks at why (if at all) you should try to be political in a world without meaning. the plague is a metaphor for the Nazi's and it is about his experience in the underground french resistence

Wonderful book, though I think I prefer Camus when he isn't telling a story with characters; eg. The Rebel.

The thing which remains with me about the character of Mersault is that he never told a lie. The absurdity of reality...

Really? It wouldn't make my top ten though it is quite good, so I can't fault you there.

The Stranger is amazing. Excellent write-up. This book is one of the best out there. Everyone should read it.

Well, it's up there. It's definitely one I've gone back to alot. One I can pick up, flip to a random page, and read anytime I'm bored. And surprisingly there's not alot of books I can say that about.

Once you have a basic grasp of the characters and family history, I find that it's really easy to flip to that random page and glean something you have forgotten about from a specific character. There are so many stories in that book it's easy to lose track of (like Aesop's fables! or the complete basement tapes, or the harry smith anthology). Anyway, I would go on about some specific favorites, but uhh I think I should stop considering this thread is about The Stranger. Which I still need to read. Hm.

Agreed. It's easy to flip through randomly and read once grasping the story. Maybe you should do the write-up for the book.

I had to write a term paper over it in my World Lit. since 1600 class. I believe I got a 110 thanks to 10 bonus points.

I've probably read over 100 papers on this book for my TA class, so even though I've never read it, I can pretty much tell you what happens. Still, I'd like to get to it some day.

i started reading this on the crapper this morning. Let me tell you, I dropped a major bomb.