The Stranger

Rating: Three Stars

This book was not at all what I thought it was about.  But after spending almost the entire reading time with a look of consternation on my face, I did end up liking it, quite a lot.  It helped also to discuss it with my sister.  I mostly like that it showed what it would be like to live life in such a different way - which is exactly the whole idea of the existential movement of that time.  It also helped to attempt to put it in context and remember the place and timeframe it was written in - which was France right at the beginning of WWII when the Germans were starting to occupy there.  But the main character's apathetic and almost sociopathic behavior was what was most fascinating...especially if compared to the things that made him actually have an emotional reaction, as he did toward the end.  Along those lines, here is one of my favorite quotes, showing off Camus' beautiful writing:  

(spoiler alert, stop here if you don't want a hint at the ending)

"As if that blind rage has washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, I that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much life myself - so like a brother, really - I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate."