xdaqua 's review for:

The Outsider by Albert Camus

4.0

dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I am genuinely conflicted about my own feelings on this book. On the one hand, I love the writing. I believe the translator did an outstanding job at portraying the poetics of the French language inherently present in Camus's writing. Her translation also excelled at embodying the protagonist's detachment and alienation. However, I cannot escape feelings of anger towards The Outsider as a work of art, due to its inescapable colonial gaze and its silencing as well as anonymization of  the Arab victim. The latter was ultimately also a victim of double erasure. Not only was he dehumanized and Othered at the first part of the book, but he was also completely erased from the second half. People describe Meursault as being punished for not ascribing social norms, as if he is the victim of this book, but darling isn't the victim the dying man who is denied justice through the deliberate trail of Meursault for his lack of conventional emotional response, instead of the murder of the marginalized human being who is not even offered the dignity of having a name.