In the end, even Meursault finds his heart. I guess I am just a pessimistic person, just like Meursault. Maybe it is because we all find ourselves in bad situations through no fault of our own that made me empathise with this apathetic hero. Yet, the way it is written, you feel for his predicaments. Meursault is just a normal man, with no real strengths or weaknesses. As Wisecrack genius, Sparky Sweets PhD says, ‘When a homie who don’t play that game swings into town, he a stranger to everybody’ (5). This novel could feel like a stranger to many people, but for me, I managed to find sympathy for Meursault. During the episode, Meursault feels as though his personality is on trial rather than his act of murder, giving an example of the absurdity life can sometimes throw at us during situations.Īs The Doors sung, ‘people are strange, when you’re a stranger’ (4), and Meursault’s strange behaviour gets him ousted out by society. Hardly a Hollywood heart throb! And this blasé attitude to life comes back to haunt our hero, when put on trial for the murder of a strange looking Arab following him and his friend on a beach. I said I didn’t mind if she was keen on it, we’d get married.’ Or, maybe, yesterday I can’t be sure’, Meursault seems vacant and cold. Right from the first line, where he declares that ‘Mother died today. The musings of Meursault seem unimportant, unemotional and a little askew, with little empathy or care in life. ‘My bedroom overlooked the main street of our district…what few people were about seemed in an absurd hurry’ (3) The Stranger is author, Albert Camus’, ‘exemplar of…philosophy of the absurd and existentialism’ (1) with its odd look at life which you go through with the narrator, Meursault, a French Algerian – like the author, Camus. Along with La Nausea and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, it is the most well known philosophical novel from an existential author. I wanted to read The Stranger, having heard about it when doing some YouTube education (see example below) about philosophy and existentialism. Instead of a review, this is more of a reaction to a book.

Book reviews for old books seem a little pointless, because what more can you say about an old book? So, here’s my review of an old book.

The stranger book albert camus