L ETRANGER (French) Mass Market Paperback – January 1, 1972

It is a grim novel. The last word is “hate.” And, in part, it concerns the conflict between the Arab and white European worlds. Albert Camus was a “pied-noir,” a French Algerian of European descent. He was their most famous writer, and would win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. This was his first novel, published in 1942 and set in the 1930’s. The title literally means “stranger,” but is often translated as “The Outsider.”The protagonist is Meursault (the name of a famous wine from the Burgundy region) who requests permission from his boss to attend his mother’s funeral in the town of Marengo (now Hajout), 80 km southwest of his home in Algiers. She had been living in a home for the elderly. Both his decision to place his mother in the home for the elderly (due to limited financial resources) as well his failure to cry at her funeral would mark him as an “outsider,” that is, outside societal norms and an indicator that he refuses to “play the game” (of life). This status would literally have fatal consequences for him. Camus quick, sharp description of the funeral itself reminded me of the pointillism painting technique of Georges Seurat.Meursault has a clerical job, and seems to be drifting through life, self-absorbed, yet without insight into his condition. His girlfriend is Marie, and there are some delightful scenes at the beach, and swimming in the Mediterranean together, filled with the foam, the sun and the salty water. He agrees that he will marry her, but true to form, states that he does not love her.Camus details Meursault’s interaction with a couple of the residents in his apartment building, including Salamano, who mistreats his dog, and Raymond, who mistreats his wife, by beating her, claiming that she is “cheating” on him. His wife is Arab. That fact is the critical catalyst for all that will follow. Raymond’s wife’s brother (and a couple buddies) commence to follow Raymond when they go to the beach. Meursault will ultimately shoot and kill one of the (unnamed) Arabs, adding an extra four bullets into his body for good measure, with a different catalyst for his actions: the sun.The second half of the novel relates to how this plays out in a court of law, with Meursault’s stubborn insistence not to “play the game” dooming him. For example, he proclaims his status as an atheist to a judge who clearly was not. Time and again, Meursault reminded me of the role Tom Courtney played in  The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner . Given how often that those in the more powerful position are absolved of their crimes, it was somewhat of an anomaly for Meursault to be convicted. However, the valid argument could be made that Meursault was merely a “foot soldier” of the powerful, and these pawns are occasionally sacrificed.The French publisher, Actes Sud, has recently published Kamel Daoud’s novel  Meursault, contre-enquête (Domaine français) (French Edition) . It won Goncourt’s award for a first novel. It has also been issued in English as  The Meursault Investigation . It tells the story Camus related from the Arab point of view. The two novels are instructive tales for our time. In the spirit of “a butterfly wings flapping in China, causing that tornado in Kansas,” which denotes the long, seemingly random links between cause and effect, what of an Arab woman’s face slapped, in the 1930’s, leading inexorably to the latest terrorist attack in Brussels?5-stars for Camus’ novel, and his initial insights into the matter.

After reading Camus' book about "The Plague" during this pandemic, I decided to re-read Camus' most famous book which I had read in French when I lived in Paris. To renew my French, I order it from Amazon in French and in English. The man has a way with words that grabs you by the throat in the first sentence and continues. Pick it up and you will begin to remember feelings you had and didn't want to have years ago in your early life. It pulls you back and demands that you better understand your own past as he did his.

I read this masterpiece in French, but would not insult the crystalline clarity of Camus' prose by attempting a review in the same tongue. Indeed, a review of such a classic is pointless; all that is possible is a personal reaction.I found myself held in horrified fascination as Meursault sleepwalks through the burial of his mother, his job in Algiers, his girlfriend's embraces, and his neighbor's scheme to teach his own mistress a lesson, all under the heat of the desert sun. Even had I not known in advance, I could feel that something bad was about to happen, and it was almost a relief when it did. At least then there would be time to seek some meaning in such a barren life.The meaning comes in the penultimate paragraph when Meursault rails at the priest who visits him in his condemned cell. In a long diatribe, filled with a passion that had been missing in the book so far, the young man proclaims that, compared to the uncertainties of religion, he at least has lived in the surety that the life he has lived from moment to moment has been his and his alone, and that the one validating certainty is the death that comes to us all. Dark though it may be, this comes across as a triumphant cry of self-possession. Camus has written that Meursault is the man who can only tell the truth, who has never mastered the little lies that the rest of us use daily to simplify our social lives. Unwilling to play the game, he remains the outsider, the Stranger. The last word in the book is "haine" -- the hatred he expects from those come to watch his execution; Meursault wears it as a medal of honor.All the way through my reading, I felt my intellectual responses kicking in. The simple style of short declarative sentences, which I gather Camus based on American writers like Hemingway, also seemed to presage the obsessive detail of the nouveau roman. The succession of almost-random events looks forward to the theatre of the absurd. The many similarities to JMG Le Clézio's first novel,  LE PROCÈS VERBAL , only underlined the fact that while the later author is full of emotion, Camus describes even love-making in a manner bleached of all emotive content.But all this was a smokescreen to hide my sense of being there with Meursault and hating being there. I somehow missed reading Camus when my college friends were doing so in the late 1950s, so I am astonished to see how totally he captures the spirit of that time that was not even his own. Or perhaps it is a young man's thing, this living for the moment, making choices on a whim, and above all this inability to feel emotion. At any rate, I was there then, and Camus makes me live it all again. At the time, however, it was not self-possession but anomie. It sent me to mental hospital, but also made possible a long search for deeper meaning in how I lived. Camus' terrible masterpiece takes me right back, but at least now I can watch with the knowledge that death is NOT all there is to life.

This book is one of my most favorites ever. I normally would never read a book twice, but, this one I want to read again and again. I cannot exactly express what it is, but, I truly recommend it. I am not someone who underlines when reading. I did a lot reading this book, though. It's a strongly psychological and philosophical book without being a tiny bit boring. Instead, the story is also very interesting. The end has been still shocking me.

I had read the book in English translation so I knew the story. The original French has much more nuance and subtlety than the translation can deliver. The story of the man who thinks he has given up on finding meaning in life is countered by his often humane responses to events. Whether he is transferred to a Paris office, whether he marries his amie, his reaction to violence in a neighbor's apartment, he says makes no difference to him. Then on a hot summer day at the beach ... The reader is privy only to the momentary thoughts and actions of the character but we can find meaning in the careful narration of the sequence of events. Who is the stranger?

Meursault is a young Algerian `pied-noir' given to observing the world with a clinical detachment. He enjoys a largely physical relationship with his girlfriend Marie who shares his love of swimming and, since Mersault does not judge others, he has an easy, tolerant acceptance of people, including his unsavoury neighbours the aged Salamano, dependent on the pathetic dog which he continually abuses, and the sadistic pimp Raymond.From the outset there are somewhat chilling indicators of Mersault's unusual and amoral attitude to life. He renews his relationship with Marie and goes to see a comedy film with her the day after attending his mother's funeral. Then, on an afternoon of intense heat, in an almost hallucinatory state of mind, he commits a serious crime for which he appears to feel no remorse.In the second part of the book largely given over to his very artificial, theatrical trial, we see how Mersault, the outsider, is incriminated as much for how he has behaved in the past - not weeping at his mother's funeral - as for his offence. As he begins to reflect on his situation, we see him in a more sympathetic light.This famous novel which has attracted a huge amount of attention, may be read on different levels. It could just be the tale, written in clear, minimalist prose, of a man whose lack of 'normal' emotions and values, combined with extreme honesty, seal his fate. On another plane, it illustrates Camus's preoccupation with the absurdity of man's desire for reasons and 'rational behaviour' in a world without meaning. Mearsault's accusers have set up arbitrary conventions and rules by which to judge him, but Mearsault himself, although for a while afraid of death, is able to come to terms with the essential unimportance of everyone's life, regardless of the value accorded to it by others.It is also interesting to compare the simplicity of this first novel with the complexity and more self-conscious philosophical digressions of one of Camus's last works, `La Chute'. Both culminate in very powerful final sections, and both need to be read more than once to appreciate them. Camus is a little too bleak for me, but definitely worth reading.

Having not used my schoolgirl French for a long time I signed up to some French classes and this book is perfect for discussion and translation. It’s a good yarn told in relatively simple language but with some good French idioms thrown in. You can also take it to a more existential level for deeper discussion if you are up to it - in French or in English!

Excellently-recorded reading of this involving work. Mr Lonsdale reads clearly and cogently, with a minimum of drama and a sameness of expression that will delight some people and perhaps irritate others. He allows the text to speak for itself, and, with L'Etranger, that is probably a very fitting approach, given the tendency of the protagonist and narrator, Meursault, to be detached and unemotional. The musical interludes (cello solo or string quartet, I think) supply the "missing" emotion.I used this for my own work on the text, and when teaching it to a class, and hearing the text while following it on the page is an effective way of getting to know it.

Again, this was purchased to replace an old, worn copy of a book, in this case a very well-known novel, which I had already read several times. It is the classic tale of Meursault, a sociopathic pied-noir (Frenchman from the North African colonies) and his detachment from those around him and feeling of the meaningless of life which lead him to commit a seemingly random murder.Narrated from a 1st person perspective, the story draws us into Meursault's internal world of existential angst and futility.Again, well worth reading and re-reading.

No spoilers, no synopsis - there are plenty here if you need them.This is simply the best book I have read, reread and read again, and again...One reviewer calls it haunting, I think it's best left at that.I bought this to replace my last copy which I wore out. I was leaving reviews for other purchases and realised I hadn't left a review for this, nor, for that matter, have I read the book for a few months, so now's a good time...