Book 34 - The Stranger - Albert Camus

It seems that I am repeating myself. I've read two books by Steinbeck, two by Larsson, two by Hiaasen, and now this is the second book by Camus. I am also eying another Sedaris book, possibly another Faulkner, and the third of Larsson's "Dragon Tattoo" series before I'm done. The way I see it, I have eighteen more books to read in the next six weeks, so I figure if I have to read that much, it might as well be stuff I really like. In other words, it's better to "go with what you know."

Book 34 - The Stranger - Albert Camus

Meursault doesn't care. He just doesn't care. His mother dies? He doesn't care. His girlfriend wants to get married? He doesn't care. His new friend the pimp wants him to write a letter to trick the mistress that he's been beating to come back to him, so he can beat her some more? Sure, why not? He doesn't care. He has no emotional connection to anyone or anything. He has no moral compass. Meursault thinks that life is absurd, that it has no meaning, that there is nothing beyond this physical existence.

The Stranger is set in French Algiers, and opens with Meursault receiving word of his mother's death. He goes to attend the funeral, but he shows no signs of grief for his loss. If anything, he is annoyed with the people around him trying to console him for feelings he does not have. The next day he hooks up with Marie, an old coworker, and they go see a comedy and fall into the sack. Meursault then befriends a pimp named Raymond, who gets him to write the aforementioned letter, and then later invites him and Marie to spend some time at a beach house of a friend. At the beach they run into "The Arab," the brother of the girl Raymond beat up, and they get into an altercation in which Raymond is wounded with a knife. After stopping Raymond from shooting the Arab, Meursault inexplicably goes out and finds the Arab and shoots him, emptying the gun into his body even after he is lying on the ground.

Meursault is arrested and a trial ensues. The trial quickly becomes less about the actual crime and more about Meursault's emotional state, or lack thereof. People are brought to testify about his lack of appropriate grief over his mother, in order to paint him as an amoral monster, not worthy of society's pity, and deserving of society's ultimate punishment. He is found guilty and sentenced to death by beheading.

Throughout the book, Meursault's emotional detachment is contrasted with the characters around him. Salamano is an old man with a mangy dog that he beats frequently. Upon losing the dog, he grieves in a way one might have expected Meursault to grieve his mother's passing. Raymond's passion and anger, although evil in nature, is starkly different from Meursault's indifference and amoral attitude. The examining magistrate and the prison chaplain are men of faith to whom Meursault's atheism is so alien, that they desperately try to get him to find God. In the end it is this final confrontation with the chaplain that allows Meursault to finally see that it is not just he that does not care about anything, but it is the universe that cares about nothing as well. In this revelation he finds momentary happiness before his death.

I liked the book. It is deceptive, offering great philosophical depth cloaked in a simple story. Still, I think I liked The Plague better (link to my review: http://the52booksin52weekspersonalchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/07/book-19-plague-albert-camus.html. Both books do a good job of illustrating Camus philosophy of the absurd, so either would be a good place to start if you haven't read any of his work.