Scan barcode
A review by thomasmannia
The Stranger by Albert Camus
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
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? It's complicated
2.0
Dull and strange and downright bad at times, but I suppose there was an attempt.
I found the sentences irritatingly sparse; the few parts where they were actually longer than five words were the best and most meaningful in the book, and it would have been much better, though still rationally and morally void, if the rest of it had been written as such.
I also found the main character to be much worse than he is generally considered to be. He isn’t an ordinary man at all- he’s a murderer, who has no respect whatsoever for anyone except for the worst people in the book. He really should have been put in an institution.
The idea of the book doesn’t make sense in the context of what he did. He killed a man for no reason and was duly prosecuted for it. It would have made more sense if Raymond had done it and then blamed him for it or if he had done it on accident or something of the like. As it stands, the protagonist was an active participant in the story, not at all an innocent bystander like overzealous readers seem to think. He knowingly aligned himself with a bad person and then did a bad thing in said bad person’s name. How is he the victim?
The only likeable character was the vest woman.
Overall, this certainly not Camus’s finest work. He distorts the idea of existentialism to the point of it appearing, yes, absurd.
I found the sentences irritatingly sparse; the few parts where they were actually longer than five words were the best and most meaningful in the book, and it would have been much better, though still rationally and morally void, if the rest of it had been written as such.
I also found the main character to be much worse than he is generally considered to be. He isn’t an ordinary man at all- he’s a murderer, who has no respect whatsoever for anyone except for the worst people in the book. He really should have been put in an institution.
The idea of the book doesn’t make sense in the context of what he did. He killed a man for no reason and was duly prosecuted for it. It would have made more sense if Raymond had done it and then blamed him for it or if he had done it on accident or something of the like. As it stands, the protagonist was an active participant in the story, not at all an innocent bystander like overzealous readers seem to think. He knowingly aligned himself with a bad person and then did a bad thing in said bad person’s name. How is he the victim?
The only likeable character was the vest woman.
Overall, this certainly not Camus’s finest work. He distorts the idea of existentialism to the point of it appearing, yes, absurd.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, and Murder