The Stranger

Title: The Stranger

Author: Albert Camus

Pages: 123

Genre: Classic

Grade: B

Synopsis: A young Frenchman, Meursault, living in Algeria becomes friends with another man in his building who takes advantage of his naivete and carefree spirit. Meursault's mother has just recently died and he shows no real sorrow or sadness at his mother's passing. Before long, Meursault finds himself thrown into the middle of a senseless murder.

My Review: This is one of the most published novels of the 20th century, receiving the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957. It's a book read in many high school English classes because it explores the inner soul of a dispassionate atheist. Meursalt reminds me a lot of the autistic boy, Christopher, in the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Meursault is not autistic but simply disengaged from his own emotions. I found the book though-provoking but not one that I'd ever read again.

From the Book: "(p. 9) It was a rustling sound that woke me up. Because I'd had my eyes closed, the whiteness of the room seemed even brighter than before. There wasn't a shadow anywhere in front of me, and every object, every angle and curve stood out so sharply it made my eyes hurt. That's when Maman's friends came in. There were about ten in all, and they floated into the blinding light without a sound. They sat down without a single chair creaking. I saw them more clearly than I had ever seen anyone, and not one detail of their faces or their clothes escaped me. But I couldn't hear them, and it was hard for me to believe that they really existed. Almost all the women were wearing aprons, and the strings, which were tied tight around their waists, made their bulging stomachs stick out even more. I'd never noticed what huge stomachs old women can have. Almost all the men were skinny and carried canes. What struck me most about their faces was that I couldn't see their eyes, just a faint glimmer in a nest of wrinkles. When they'd sat down, most of them looked at me and nodded awkwardly, their lips sucked in by their toothless mouths, so that I couldn't tell if they were greeting me or if it was just a nervous tic. I think they were greeting me. It was then that I realized they were all sitting across from me, nodding their heads, grouped around the caretaker. For a second I had the ridiculous feeling that they were there to judge me."