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The Stranger Book Review

The Stranger is a 1942 novella by Albert Camus. It is the author’s most respected literary work, but I have my qualms about it.

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“I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world“

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It follows Meursault, an indifferent settler in French Algeria, who, weeks after his mother’s funeral, kills an unnamed Arab man in Algiers. The story is divided into two parts, presenting Meursault’s first-person narrative before and after the killing. It’s regarded as one of the best books of the 20^th century nowadays, but I personally found it to be much inferior to Camus’ much better work, which was ‘The Fall’.

My main issue with this work is Camus’ nihilistic philosophy. Whereas in ‘The Fall’ his philosophy was more existential in nature and the tone was more open for discussion, here he basically posits what he believes in without making the effort to understand any other opinion that humans may have about life, death and the meaning of life.

Meursault acts as the conscience of Camus. Through this protagonist we effectively follow the author’s own thoughts about the world, and those ideas are deeply problematic. This kind of thinking would nowadays land you at a psychiatrist’s table, but back then it was considered sane. The universe is irrational says Camus, so any rationality that we as humans add to it is in itself irrational and futile.

Meursault’s trial itself functions as a metaphor to all life as everybody attempts to find meaning behind his crime, but there is none, so ultimately each of their theories prove to be pointless. The theory of chaos is showcased here, which means that humans try to find meaning in all things, but often times there is no meaning to the chaos happening around us, so these attempts are in vain.

The eventual realization of the protagonist that all human life is meaningless frees his mind, so he is able to relax and accept his fate. Needless to say, the nihilism as depicted here was among the most extreme that you can find in literature. The very position that all lives are meaningless and that a human’s life is just as pointless as a dog’s life is deeply problematic and it’s troubling to me that so many people agree with this line of thinking and find this book to be a masterpiece.

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There is also the theme of the importance of the physical world within this story as the protagonist only really experiences the annoyance of the heat or the pleasures of sex etc. And yes, the physical pleasures are definitely highly important, but there is more to human life than just those animalistic pleasures and Camus’ insistence that the opposite is the case is baffling.

The biggest thing to remember when analyzing The Stranger is that life is much more complex than either optimists or pessimists would make you believe. The truth lies somewhere firmly in the middle. Thus, Camus here deals with half-truths as clearly the entire universe is chaotic and sometimes things just happen without a clear reason, but humans trying to add meaning to all things should never be considered a pointless endeavor.

The idea that life is meaningless and that every single person finding meaning to his life is just coping mechanism is very problematic and simply false. You can find meaning on your own terms and every single human being finds different meaning for themselves. Who is Camus to argue that all those lives are meaningless? And the very idea to write a novel about the meaninglessness of life is ironically enough meaningless in and of itself.

I didn’t hate this novella, though I disagreed with its messaging profoundly. What I did admire was Camus’ writing, which was always accomplished, especially in the simpler, but effective language that he uses in both his dialogue and his descriptions. There are many different characters here and all are very well painted and memorable despite their minute roles. Meursault is very well developed and highly memorable. I would personally categorize him as a clear-cut sociopath as he feels no emotions whatsoever besides the physical sensations.

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The Stranger begins memorably with the mother’s funeral and it ends with the impending doom of the protagonist and his existentialist thoughts about it. The beach scene was also powerful and very meticulously written in detail, emotions and tone. The book is very easy to read due to its short length and strong, eventful storytelling, but had it focused more on argumentative existentialism than didactic nihilism it would have been so much better.