The Stranger by Albert Camus

Review & Rating: 9/10

The Stranger was a first-person novel written in French by Albert Camus. Here’s the author’s summary of the book in a few sentences:

"I summarized The Stranger a long time ago, with a remark I admit was highly paradoxical: "In our society any man who does not weep at his mother's funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death." I only meant that the hero of my book is condemned because he does not play the game.” - Albert Camus

The story was based in the French Algiers and focused around Meursault, our hero. It was a two-part novel broken up into stories pre-murder and post-murder, a murder our main character was guilty of committing. But the story wasn’t about whether our Meursault murdered a man or not. No, it was something with far greater reach and complexity. 

The book showed the chaos and complexity inherent in one human life. Include that life in a sea of others and we have an exponential level of chaos that is human society. This society decided to control the chaos by creating binary codes of black or white, right or wrong, zero or one. Such methods are a travesty and reflect our capacity and willingness to do stupid things.

The story showed how a series of independent events with independently unique context and reasons could be stringed up into a chain to spring forward a rationalized argument that depicts the human desire to see everything as “cause and effect.” 

It depicted the inability of individuals to look at each human life as a unique situation. A man who did not cry at his mother’s funeral was considered evil and full of malice. I know this to not be true. But I also understand that when someone doesn’t cry at their parent’s funeral, it’s looked as weird—even today! 

What is it to anybody else if someone doesn’t cry at their parent’s funeral? Nothing at all. But, the human desire to judge what goes against the grain and the “game” so many found themselves playing (without even realizing or choosing to) overpowers everyone’s ability to think. 

I found myself experiencing all kinds of emotions from apathy, empathy, sympathy, and anger throughout. It was a story of such complexity I found myself confused with the emotions I was feeling when I finally got a hold of them.

The narrative and language were easy to follow, a sign of Camus’s mastery of prose. Such simple prose put a limelight on the complexity of human society addressed in the book. It was astounding how such simple writing and narrative could showcase the complexity of life through the eyes of an everyday person. 

Though the story was written decades ago, I found our preference to judge and discriminate without thinking to be still prevalent today. It showed the dangers for someone who was willing to look different and the unforgiving nature of humanity on those who didn’t conform and play the game.

Notes for Myself: 

The Stranger, like most good books, taught lessons on the human experience and on writing well—specifically the art of first-person writing. I read the translated version so I imagine the sentence and emotion would’ve come off different if I read it in French. But, it was still amazing to see the cadence of his sentences. 

The rhythm of writing sentences and paragraphs is something I’ve been struggling with, one noticed by the effort it takes to read, digest, and feel the words. The more effortless it is to read the writing, the better its rhythm.

Here are a few examples of beautiful phrases:

“When I woke I was leaning against a soldier; he grinned and asked me if I’d come from a long way off, and I just nodded, to cut things short. I wasn’t in a mood for talking. The Home is a little over a mile from the village. I went there on foot.” 

“Then we shook hands, and he held mine so long that I began to feel embarrassed.” 

“I found him rather boring, but I had nothing to do and didn’t feel sleepy.” 

“The two policemen led me into a small room that smelled of darkness.” 

Look at the cadence. Look at the use of statements to showcase a conversation and the honesty of actions!

Look at how Camus grasps hold of the mundane, the little details that dictate our actions. Think about how much of what people do in their lives are exacted because of boredom, to limit embarrassment, or to play along and not appear rude.

Now, look at these passages depicting elements of humanity:

“I noticed that he laid stress on my “intelligence.” It puzzled me rather why what would count as a good point in an ordinary person should be used against an accused man as an overwhelming proof of his guilt.” 

“Every man alive was privileged; there was only one class of men, the privileged class.” 

Do you see how wonderfully Camus captured the complexity of what it means to be human? To live in a world that believes in the illusion of absolute right and wrong? 

Watch how you feel when you read these sentences. They’re beautiful and true. Look at the second sentence above. You feel uneasy do you not? What is the unease?

You are preemptively thinking about all those who oppose your opinion. It’s not that you dislike their opinion. Of course, you would like them better if they agreed with you. But that’s not the point.

The point is that you feel uneasy and that’s because “culture” has entered your psyche. This “culture” is that which will shut you up and stop you from saying things you know and believe to be true because of fear from strangers.

It will take a lifetime of practice to ignore these voices. But you must remember that they must be ignored. Conformity has its place but that place should rarely, if ever, be in your work.