Albert Camus and the Minister

Rating:
Summary: Albert Camus? is a reminder
Review: Howard Mumma first met and befriended Noble prize-winner, writer, and philosopher Albert Camus while Mumma was serving as guest preacher at the American Church in Paris in the late 1950s. Albert Camus And The Minister is the story of their conversations, often laced with humor, on such topics as existential philosophy, Christianity, personal conscience, the Bible, the ideology of war, human suffering, and more. Highly recommended reading for students of twentieth century philosophy, Albert Camus And The Minister also presents personal stories, significant events, and acts of faith from Mumma's own experience which provide a glimpse into the life and background of a man fortunate enough to have a meaningful and enduring intellectual relationship with the late Albert Camus, one of the most influential thinkers of his day.

Rating:
Summary: How can a reader believe this book.
Review: I was shocked to read the author's statement that Camus was raised by his mother and his aunt. This is totally inconsistent with even Camus' autobiological notes. Camus was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother. If the author was such a great friend of Camus, how could he be so mistaken on this point ? Since little else in the book can be verified, this misstatement raises serious concerns about the veracity of the entire book.

Rating:
Summary: An Absurd Implication
Review: Mr. Mumma's work is exceptionally rich in presenting us with "Camus the Man" and the demons he struggled with. However, though I found the exchange between Mumma and Camus interesting on certain points, his implication that Camus'1960 tragic death was a "suicide" turned what could have been an otherwise warm tale of friendship into a let-down. Tell me, how does a man who was in the passenger seat of a car along with three other friends decide that this is the perfect moment for suicide and then influences the driver in such a manner as to cause him to swerve into a tree? Talk about the Absurd!

Rating:
Summary: An Absurd Implication
Review: Mr. Mumma's work is exceptionally rich in presenting us with "Camus the Man" and the demons he struggled with. However, though I found the exchange between Mumma and Camus interesting on certain points, his implication that Camus'1960 tragic death was a "suicide" turned what could have been an otherwise warm tale of friendship into a let-down. Tell me, how does a man who was in the passenger seat of a car along with three other friends decide that this is the perfect moment for suicide and then influences the driver in such a manner as to cause him to swerve into a tree? Talk about the Absurd!

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable tripe
Review: Much of this book is hard to believe with Camus' role in the "conversations" merely being that of a child posing simple questions to spur Mumma's pontifications. I suppose Mumma deserves some credit for tricking fans of Camus into reading his biblical rants, but much of this is hard to swallow. Maybe the two did have conversations along these lines, but I've never seen Mumma mentioned anywhere else in connection with Camus. This includes the two massive and very comprehensive biographies of Camus by Herbert Lottman and Olivier Todd. Mumma seems most impressed by the celebrity of Camus and doesn't give any indications that he actually bothered to read Camus' work. Mumma seems to have simply filed Camus away as an "existentialist" (a movement Camus didn't consider himself a part of and a term he despised) and a "non-believer" and attributed his own pre-conceived notions of such people to Camus without digging deeper. This entire book seems like an embellishment of their relationship at best and a figment of Mumma's imagination at worst.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable tripe
Review: Much of this book is hard to believe with Camus' role in the "conversations" merely being that of a child posing simple questions to spur Mumma's pontifications. I suppose Mumma deserves some credit for tricking fans of Camus into reading his biblical rants, but much of this is hard to swallow. Maybe the two did have conversations along these lines, but I've never seen Mumma mentioned anywhere else in connection with Camus. This includes the two massive and very comprehensive biographies of Camus by Herbert Lottman and Olivier Todd. Mumma seems most impressed by the celebrity of Camus and doesn't give any indications that he actually bothered to read Camus' work. Mumma seems to have simply filed Camus away as an "existentialist" (a movement Camus didn't consider himself a part of and a term he despised) and a "non-believer" and attributed his own pre-conceived notions of such people to Camus without digging deeper. This entire book seems like an embellishment of their relationship at best and a figment of Mumma's imagination at worst.