A friend of mine who was a student of philosophy introduced me to Albert Camus 20 years ago and gave me The Stranger (L’Étranger) to read. I was so absorbed that I finished it without stopping and during all these years I never forgot about it. As many people say, it is a haunting book that rocks your view of life and may cause an existential crisis.
The book chronicles the thoughts of a middle-class man as he experiences his mother’s death and then a series of events lead him to murder an Arab (he was a Frenchman in Algiers in 1940s). I did not think that the plot is important but it is interesting in the sense that it is a powerful way to tell a story. What strikes you the most is that Meursault, the main character, is completely detached from the world around him. He is literally the outsider. While he lives in this world and enjoys the small things that make our lives fun, he is not attached to anything (the book is sometimes also called The Outsider), and that frustrates everyone. To make it even worse for the folks in this world, he is perfectly happy in the way he sees himself and the world.
It is actually a very depressing book and with this I have formally launched my France Discovery Project, but I strongly recommend it anyway because a book that makes you sad, actually forces you to reflect on your life, and hopefully you can find something to make you happy.
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