The Stranger
by Albert Camus (1942)
It seems odd to review The Stranger only now, since I finished this book months ago. But this review has been sitting in a word document on my desktop this whole time, and all this time has helped me compile and organize my thoughts. In my review of Kafka’s The Trial, I mentioned how the absurdity lies mainly within the relationship between the main character and the elusive governing body that is accusing him. In The Stranger, it seems like the absurdity now exists between the main character, Meursault, and a plethora of social norms, all portrayed by different characters. Death (his mother), marriage (Marie), friendships (Raymond, Salamano, Masson), and religion (the pastor) are all life experiences that Meursault is confronted with. And what I saw a lot of in The Stranger was Meursault’s conflict with a society who viewed him as someone who did not abide by these norms.
But I even hesitate to call this a conflict, because Meursault seems at peace with himself throughout the book. Maybe it’s one sided? He may be scared or upset sometimes, but he never doubts what he believes. And this (to me) is the main theme of the book and Camus’s philosophy – Meursault is ‘free’ in this sense, and by accepting that these different experiences are meaningless to him, he is not bound to any sort of ground truth (by religion or other means) and is free to create his own meaning in his life.
This sounds great, but this line of thinking doesn’t come without conflict. The other characters do not share his views, and the conversations between Meursault and the pastor (one of the best dialogues I’ve read) perfectly exemplifies this. The pastor seems to be saying what everyone around him was thinking when presented with Meursault’s odd way of life.
This was one of my favorite books this year, and I would recommend to anyone wanting to either step more into the philosophical side of fiction or just read a modern(ish?) classic without being intimidated by a large page count.