A review by house_of_hannah
The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud

challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

For how short this book is it felt like it took me forever to read. Our narrator, the brother of "the Arab" in the book The Stranger, tells his story as if he is speaking to another patron at the bar. He is not only completely unreliable, but speaks in circles so much that nothing truly happens in this story until the halfway point. It is bizarrely repetitive in a way that drove me nuts. 

This story also ended up being quite different from what I was expecting. I knew going into this that it would be from the perspective of the brother, but for some reason I was thinking that the brother had been one of the people on the beach that day. I really thought we were going to get more insight into what went down, but instead it was more about how the incident ruined his life and his perceptions. 

I can see why this is an important book, but the enjoyment factor just wasn't there for me.