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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
reflective
sad
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This 1947 novel is pretty astonishing to encounter in 2020, in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Albert Camus was not seeking to predict the future, and his presentation of a fictional outbreak in his own decade is of course not a perfect match for COVID-19. Nevertheless, the parallels are uncomfortably striking in the logistics of the disease's spread and belated government response, and downright uncanny in the author's insights into a quarantined people's psychology. As per his existentialist bona fides, Camus captures vivid impressions of characters struggling to make sense of the unfathomable disruption to their lives, as well as their complicated reactions to authority figures' instructions on best practices.
I honestly found it all kind of exhausting to read in our present day, and I abandoned an early effort to copy down passages that seemed particularly apt after realizing I'd be quoting most of the book that way. I can't possibly recommend it as escapism for modern audiences, even on the level of political allegory that Camus likely intended -- but as literature that distills and expresses our uneasy reality, it really can't be beat.
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I honestly found it all kind of exhausting to read in our present day, and I abandoned an early effort to copy down passages that seemed particularly apt after realizing I'd be quoting most of the book that way. I can't possibly recommend it as escapism for modern audiences, even on the level of political allegory that Camus likely intended -- but as literature that distills and expresses our uneasy reality, it really can't be beat.
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
Amazing!
Amazing just like any book by Camus.
Ce bouquin est un des meilleurs bouquins que j'ai jamais lu.
Chapeau bas à Camus.
Amazing just like any book by Camus.
Ce bouquin est un des meilleurs bouquins que j'ai jamais lu.
Chapeau bas à Camus.
I read this book in high school over thirty years ago, and none of it stayed with me. Now, after the pandemic, I decided to read it again. As it happens, I am an infectious disease epidemiologist, which doubtless gave me a very particular view of the events. One part of me approached it as a scientist of bubonic plague, another as a person who lived through a plague, and another as someone fighting a plague. Very little of the book resonated from these perspectives, even if I was willing to give Camus a lot of passes for not understanding epidemiology or the natural history of Yersinia pestis.
I kept thinking, "This book is set in the 1940's. What were the characters doing during the war?" Then I realized this book is an allegory of what it felt like to be trapped in France during WWII. With this new perspective, I liked the book considerably more. But I still don't love it. Frankly, the writing is brilliant in some parts, but maddeningly repetitive and long-winded in others. The death scenes seemed cliched, as if swiped from a toolbox of 19th century tropes.
The four or five archetypal main characters, grappling with existence, were not drawn clearly enough for me to understand exactly what Camus wanted to communicate in this (obviously) philosophical novel, and I had the inescapable sense that this was do to the limitations of Camus as a novelist rather than as a philosopher.
Another odd impression I had was that I was watching a badly-edited movie from the 1940's in which action is communicated by jumping between scenes without explanation.
This book could have been cut by one-third and have been more effective.
I kept thinking, "This book is set in the 1940's. What were the characters doing during the war?" Then I realized this book is an allegory of what it felt like to be trapped in France during WWII. With this new perspective, I liked the book considerably more. But I still don't love it. Frankly, the writing is brilliant in some parts, but maddeningly repetitive and long-winded in others. The death scenes seemed cliched, as if swiped from a toolbox of 19th century tropes.
The four or five archetypal main characters, grappling with existence, were not drawn clearly enough for me to understand exactly what Camus wanted to communicate in this (obviously) philosophical novel, and I had the inescapable sense that this was do to the limitations of Camus as a novelist rather than as a philosopher.
Another odd impression I had was that I was watching a badly-edited movie from the 1940's in which action is communicated by jumping between scenes without explanation.
This book could have been cut by one-third and have been more effective.