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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
I have not read Camus' "The Stranger" since I was an undergrad over 45 years ago. This will get me back to it for the first time since then, as well as to the illustrated novel version of it by Jacques Ferrandez. Interestingly, all about the same length. Doubt I will go beyond that with Camus, as even when I was young I viewed Existentialism as something you did while you were young, and then grew out of quickly. More of an attitude than a real philosophy.
I did not reread "The Stranger" before I read this, and it is not really necessary to read the source first. But I'll enjoy reading it now, with an added perspective from Daoud.
Started out amazing, slowed down a bit, and then picked up for the end.
Written by political journalist Daoud. First person narrative from the brother of "the Arab" who Meursault kills on the beach in Camus' novel. Both have mother issues. Meursault is treated as a real person, a mix of the character and the actual author.
Great anti-Colonialist literature. I'd be happy to read another novel by Daoud. BTW, he had a fatwa out on him after some stated opinions, not having to do with this novel. But there are a couple chapters here that I can understand would lead to his death being called for by the purist, right wing Muslim sects. Not believing in Allah, no respect for the Imans.
Quick read, and well worth it, given the Arab POV on the Camus murder plot, and the whole anti-Colonialist vibe to the volume. Found out about thus book in an interview with an author in the NYTBR's "By The Book" weekly column.
I did not reread "The Stranger" before I read this, and it is not really necessary to read the source first. But I'll enjoy reading it now, with an added perspective from Daoud.
Started out amazing, slowed down a bit, and then picked up for the end.
Written by political journalist Daoud. First person narrative from the brother of "the Arab" who Meursault kills on the beach in Camus' novel. Both have mother issues. Meursault is treated as a real person, a mix of the character and the actual author.
Great anti-Colonialist literature. I'd be happy to read another novel by Daoud. BTW, he had a fatwa out on him after some stated opinions, not having to do with this novel. But there are a couple chapters here that I can understand would lead to his death being called for by the purist, right wing Muslim sects. Not believing in Allah, no respect for the Imans.
Quick read, and well worth it, given the Arab POV on the Camus murder plot, and the whole anti-Colonialist vibe to the volume. Found out about thus book in an interview with an author in the NYTBR's "By The Book" weekly column.
J'ai dû le lire pour le literaturkreis et je l'ai trouvé totalement ennuyeux. Le seul point positif est que j'ai pu relire L'etranger après beaucoup de temps et que je l'ai trouvé aussi beau que d'habitude.
Ich musste es für den Literaturkreis lesen und fand es total langweilig. Die einzige positive Seite ist, dass ich den Etranger nach einiger Zeit noch einmal lesen konnte und fand ihn so schön wie immer.
I had to read it for the literaturkreis and I found it totally boring. Only positive side is that I got to reread L'etranger after a lot of time and found it as beautiful as usually.
Ho dovuto leggerlo per il literaturkreis e l'ho trovato completamente noioso. Il solo lato positivo è che ho avuto modo di rileggere L'etranger dopo un sacco di tempo e l'ho trovato bello come al solito.
Ich musste es für den Literaturkreis lesen und fand es total langweilig. Die einzige positive Seite ist, dass ich den Etranger nach einiger Zeit noch einmal lesen konnte und fand ihn so schön wie immer.
I had to read it for the literaturkreis and I found it totally boring. Only positive side is that I got to reread L'etranger after a lot of time and found it as beautiful as usually.
Ho dovuto leggerlo per il literaturkreis e l'ho trovato completamente noioso. Il solo lato positivo è che ho avuto modo di rileggere L'etranger dopo un sacco di tempo e l'ho trovato bello come al solito.
I really enjoyed this revision of Camus' story through the post-colonial lens. It is what it says on the tin, the story of the brother of the "Arab" killed in Camus' novel, but here, of course, "the Arab" has a name, as does our narrator here, and a whole social context, in the colonial and post-colonial in Algeria. The writing is spare and occasionally abstract, really engaging with Camus' style and his thematic concerns. A solid read.
The Stranger is the classic of existential lit. Daoud's novel is the parallel, antithetical, yet reduplicated story of the unnamed 'Arab' whom the anti-hero of Camus' novel kills. But, be warned - If you haven't read The Stranger recently and haven't had to read it critically, then The Meursault Investigation will fall short. The brilliance of this novel is the layering that creates at first a contrast between Camus' Meursault and Daoud's narrator Harun, who tells the story of his dead brother Musa - 'the Arab' shot in Camus's novel -- but ultimately shows they are two sides of a single coin.
Absence of a god versus the killing of god/religion; the death of an unnamed local by a privileged colonial vs the death of a colonial after the end of the war for independence; the failure of that war and independence to live up to the expectations of those who wanted better and how the victors destroyed their own world in that reach for freedom; and trials not for killing someone but for their failures of character -- these are some of the complex comparisons and contrasts Daoud explores as his narrator tells his tale in bar over a series of nights.
We are eavesdroppers on an intimate conversation 70 years after the death of Musa. We only hear one side, but the interviewer carries his copy of The Stranger (here presented as a factual account written by Meursault) and we can glean what it is he asks periodically. Harun is witty, and contemplative, but angry and obsessed, his entire life revolved around the incident of his brother's death and the book written about it. He is a hard man, and ultimately unsympathetic. There were moments where I wondered if his brother had been in fact the 'Arab' at all - that instead he became the substitute for the brother that disappeared and gave him a target for his righteous indignation at the colonists and the religious.
This is the type of novel that provokes thought, and argument, but leaves no solution, ties up no threads, fills in no blanks. It is the type of novel that inspires critical papers and if I were still teaching high schoolers, I'd pair these two novels because, in the end, they enhance each other while simultaneously making us question both.
Absence of a god versus the killing of god/religion; the death of an unnamed local by a privileged colonial vs the death of a colonial after the end of the war for independence; the failure of that war and independence to live up to the expectations of those who wanted better and how the victors destroyed their own world in that reach for freedom; and trials not for killing someone but for their failures of character -- these are some of the complex comparisons and contrasts Daoud explores as his narrator tells his tale in bar over a series of nights.
We are eavesdroppers on an intimate conversation 70 years after the death of Musa. We only hear one side, but the interviewer carries his copy of The Stranger (here presented as a factual account written by Meursault) and we can glean what it is he asks periodically. Harun is witty, and contemplative, but angry and obsessed, his entire life revolved around the incident of his brother's death and the book written about it. He is a hard man, and ultimately unsympathetic. There were moments where I wondered if his brother had been in fact the 'Arab' at all - that instead he became the substitute for the brother that disappeared and gave him a target for his righteous indignation at the colonists and the religious.
This is the type of novel that provokes thought, and argument, but leaves no solution, ties up no threads, fills in no blanks. It is the type of novel that inspires critical papers and if I were still teaching high schoolers, I'd pair these two novels because, in the end, they enhance each other while simultaneously making us question both.
"You drink a language, you speak a language, and one day it owns you; and from then on, it falls into the habit of grasping things in your place, it takes over your mouth like a lover's voracious kiss."
Very good. Very uncomfortable.
Very good. Very uncomfortable.
I liked the idea of this book, but if I hadn't recently re-read "The Stranger" I would not have known what was going on. It certainly did not stand alone successfully.
First of all, I wanted to like this book a lot. I heard about it on NPR in an interview with the author, and it is the story of Albert Camus's "The Stranger" as told by the family of "the Arab" whom Meursault kills in the great existentialist's novel. So, right away, it is a compelling premise. Where Camus allowed "the Arab" no name, we now know him as Musa, through a series of conversations, monologues really, from the recent past, with his brother Harun, who laments his life, resents his mother and has little good to say about his country, Algeria. At his most successful moments, author Daoud forces the reader palpably into a confrontation with "the other" that Camus's book so casually (and namelessly) abnegates and murders. However, at least for this reader, this recognition and appreciation did not translate into a sympathy for Harun or any greater understanding of what happened on that stretch of beach in the blinding sun when his family's life was forever changed by a real Stranger.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A perfect follow up to The Stranger, Daoud captures the spirit Camus left us with and continues the conversation. How does one grip with the Absurd? The same way Harun grips with his brother’s senseless death at the center of Meursault’s indifference.
Daoud has created an engrossing dialogue, a dynamic discourse that reinvigorates ([b:The Stranger|49552|The Stranger|Albert Camus|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349927872s/49552.jpg|3324344]) while reframing the whole discussion as he gives name and voice to a literary victim ("the Arab") whose humanity Camus overlooks. In naming Musa and having his brother Harun seek closure/truth, Daoud forces reader and characters to examine what it means to be an "other," he rips the scab off historical wounds, and he shines a light on colonialism's grim past in Algeria. It's rare to find a novel that has such pace and philosophical depth. As Harun directly addresses the reader throughout, you feel like a character, an integral part of a complex discussion that survives beyond the covers. You'll ask yourself whether the role Daoud casts for you is the one you wish to play.
I’m not sure what I was expecting. It’s a mirror of The Stranger from the point of view of the brother of the person Meursault kills, and that’s a great premise but it’s less a Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and more of an inversion of The Stranger. The main character’s entire life is defined by the death of his brother and his mother’s mourning, so he faces the same existentialist questions about God and Death and living.
I liked the premise but found the execution lacking.
I liked the premise but found the execution lacking.