A review by l1nty
The First Man by Albert Camus

5.0

haha! foolish me, i never wrote a review for this book (not even a short one!). anywhoooooo this book is stellar and criminally underrated when considering the focus it receives compared to other works by camus. don’t get me wrong! i adore his work, and i plan to read more, but i really do think that had this been finished, it would have been his magnum opus. and i get it! that’s a tough claim to back up, and (to put things into perspective), this book stood out to me in large part due to the circumstances of my life as i read it. nonetheless, without any emotional baggage, it’s still an amazing book. you don’t need to be in a vulnerable state to still be impacted when you read pages 25-27 (probably some of the greatest writing in the entire book tbh).

i think one thing that makes the first man such a unique book is it’s eternal incompletion. when you read it, you’re reading a manuscript dominated by the authors own personal thoughts, and it’s truly unlike anything i’ve ever read. this can easily be a detriment to some though, and id argue that one of the few bad parts of this book is that it isn’t finished. even so, it’s still stellar and it holds a very special place in my heart.

staying on the critical perspective, i do wish that camus had expanded in the so called alienation of jacques, but also, i know why he didn’t ( this book would have been several hundred pages longer in ideal circumstances, so we miss a lot).

to wrap things up, i love this book and i know it will forever remain in my heart ❤️