THE STRANGER ( aka - The Outsider) - Albert Camus

Here is a book I finished on February 16th 2008 at 1:32am.  (Originally called "The Stranger" and translated as "The Outsider" from French into English)

The idea to read this came from a woman I met in university.  I purchased this copy in 2003 after I had graduated but waited 5 years to read it for a variety of reasons, one of which being I had other books I wanted to read first.  Admittedly I am a slow reader and find myself only reading in bursts, then nothing for some time.  I suppose I am a binge reader.
On a side note: worth noting is that the band The Cure wrote a song called "Killing an Arab" sometime in the 80's and was on a cassette tape I purchased of theirs in the 80's.  I had no idea at the time but it was based on this book.  It was really cool to be reading it so many years later and put two and two together.  I like when that happens.  I find as you get older this happens more and more and you can more readily identify situations of 'who influenced who' as you begin to take in more information about art and culture.  Very very cool.

Without giving too much away the book is broken up into 2 parts and describes a series of events that leads the main character, Meursault, in part one to kill an Arab man on a beach in Algiers.  Part two revolves around his trial afterwards.  The build up to the murder is actually quite descriptive and I was able to immerse myself in the moment of it happening so much so that I could actually feel the sun as Camus describes it.  Meursault is unlike any other character I have read before, in that he lacks the ability to react as we, as a society, expect people to act.  This is outlined specifically in his reaction at his mothers funeral in the beginning and of course by the judge near the end.  I'll explain some more about the character and morality below.    

I recommend this book for almost all of us concerned with exploring the boundaries of morality, more specifically, what and how we 'ought' to be or behave when faced with specific situations. To explain further; Camus has said himself that the character is a man who is unable to lie - he must always tell the truth.  This can make for an interesting and highly discussable topic. Furthermore, it is a topic that I might find incredibly hard to describe and write.  I think Camus pulls is off by not being too obvious.  Meursault isn't written in isolated situations where he is faced with yes or no questions requiring his immediate position to either one side of 'our' expectations or the other .  Instead I feel Camus has created a disguised version of the very thin moral line where we see the main character exploring every event Camus puts him in from an exploitative mind set, or a curiosity that disables him to feel any specific way about anything until the entirety of that event can be processed.  For example, when he kills the Arab with one shot he proceeds to shoot him again and again, and this is not in anger or contempt, but almost in an inquisitive fashion. Perhaps he is wondering why is isn't feeling the preconceived notion of murder and execution as being a horribly painful thing to commit. I can;t help but feel he continues to shoot, to see if that feeling of 'wrong' can be obtained.  I can't help but think so becasue he shows us this lack of ability to really follow what we 'ought' to be and how we 'ought' to act while having a moment of no regret for what he did as is shown to us during his trial. He really only shows us feelings annoyance and seemed to be inconvenienced by it all...perhaps becasue he was unable to understand the moment fully, and thus, properly? 
I am then confused when Meursault is speaking with the priest and begins his angry rant. So why now is Meursault able to show us raw emotion, very angry emotion?  It appears he has picked a side here.  I won't say too much more as the verdict is worth waiting for, especially Meursault's reaction to it.  Please leave comments to discuss further, as this is a good point to go over.

This book is 120 pages long if you include the afterword by Camus at the end (which gives a lot away in regards to what we are discussing here) I was able to finish it in one day.  Regardless of how long it was, I don't think I would have been able to put it down until it was finished...it was simply that good.  On a my sliding scale this is easily a 10/10 for all the reasons we discussed above.  There are just so many brilliant ways to approach the main character, and so much more can be said.  This is a book I could go on about for a very long time.