Rating: 
Summary: Existential - and absurd
Review: Camus' _The Stranger_ does illustrate what existentialism in practice is. As the protagonist, Muersault is faced with what most would consider major life events: the death of his mother, the prospect of a job relocation to Paris, a woman asking him to marry her, murder and a trial he responds with a nonchalance that is disturbing, accepting the actions as part of life, and with the realization that there is very little he can do about them. Yet the novella is also an exploration of the absurd, as Muersault's nonplussed reactions prompt absurd reactions from those around him. Indeed, Muersault's choice to exist - to not attempt to influence or change any of the situations he finds himself in - is absurd.
The book is both frustrating and insightful and was a worthwhile read. It gives a much clearer understanding of existentialism than any essay of Sartre's, with an almost sarcastic undertone provided by the sheer absurdity of the plot.
Rating:
Summary: Perceptions of an indifferent son
Review: He learns his mother has died. He asks for two days off, not realizing that one of the days is Saturday. Madame Mearsault had lived in a home for the elderly. Mearsault's boss sounds him out on the idea of moving to Paris where he is thinking of establishing a branch office.
At the beach with friends the sun is burning in his face. A man pulls out a knife and Mearsault shoots him four times. His lawyer does not understand him. He questions him about his feelings at the time of his mother's death.
His friend Marie will not be allowed to come to the prison because she is not his wife. At night in prison Mearsault feels bugs crawling on his face. In the beginning of the imprisonment his thoughts are still those of a free man. The main problem is killing time.
Mearsault is interested in seeing his trial. In French fashion three judges preside. A witness reports he was surprised by Mearsault's calm the day of his mother's funeral. A friend tells the court that Mearsault's presence at the beach was mere chance. Mearsault says he did not intend to kill the victim. He blurts out that it happened because of the sun.
Mearsault comes to accept his fate with general indifference. Camus' smooth and shining style provides just the right balance to tell the story of serial failures of perception by the hero and others as he meets his fate of imprisonment.
Rating:
Summary: A foreigner in his own life
Review: I don't believe Albert Camus had any that idea that his novel 'The Stranger' would be so popular and timeless when he wrote that book in 1946. It is not a fluke, but he didn't seem to have many aspirations and pretensions when writing this short, but amazing, book. In a nutshell, 'The Strange' is the story of an Algerian, Mr. Meursault, who loses the strings of his life, and leads a flow of events decide his fate. The narrative begins of the death of his mothers. He is forced to go to the retirement house where she used to live and attend the funeral. In doing so, he feels strange, and doesn't seem to have any tender feeling toward his dead mother-- to the surprise of the local people. Later on he starts dating Marie --but notice he doesn't love her. It is just that it is easier to be with her, than being alone. He ends getting involved with Raymond --who seems to be not very honest. And in an unfortunate event he kills an Arab. That's when his life falls apart. Well, it would, if he was a normal person but he is not. Camus has created a vivid --albeit lacking in energy and chutzpah -- character to be the protagonist of his novel. Meursault is not a normal person, however he is just the French average Joe of the mid 40s. He doesn't have many aspirations for his life; he lets the flow of events drive his life. The book is so well written that after a couple of pages you really feel upset with him. Is he incapable of showing feelings, or doesn't he have any feelings? These are questions raised throughout the novel, but it seems that the writer never came up with a plain answer to that, because it is not easy. Like it is stated in the novel 'Everything is true and nothing is true.' Like in life, it is nothing is really one thing. It all depends on a referential to what is true and what is not. Meursault seems to not have this referential. He simply doesn't care about being alive and governing his life. With this Camus shows all that generation angst. They seem to lack strong feelings, or even any kind of feelings. 'The Stranger' is one of the 20th Century classics, one of those books destined to be discussed forever-- because it generates so many different interpretations. More than book, it became a cultural event. It is a novel that deserves multiple readings.
Rating: 
Summary: A Strange Read
Review: I was looking forward to reading "The Stranger" due to its interesting premise, and upon finishing it, I am not quite sure exactly what I have read. "The Stranger" is a disturbing look into a seemingly immoral man's life, who commits an inexplicable murder, and is nonchalant in regards to his future. It is an exploration of the questions that plague men's souls about their very existence.
We are immediately introduced to our narrator, Meursault, an Algerian Frenchman, as he relates the news of his mother's death. Instead of being overcome with emotion, Meursault reacts to his mother's passing with little more than mere annoyance. He then returns to his job and takes up with a young women he has admired for some time. She becomes besotted with him, but he could care less whether he marries her or not. For no good reason, other than wanting someone to talk to, he befriends the building's pimp and helps him fight off the men who stalk him. In one moment of blinding thoughtlessness, Meursault commits an unthinkable murder. He is arrested, and the rest of the book is devoted to his time in jail and his trial.
Although Meursault is the narrator, I feel that we never get to know him. He wanders aimlessly through life, questioning much and gaining few answers. His observations about life in jail, and his questions about what happens after death are thoughtprovoking, but reveal little as to the true nature of his mind. Camus is a gifted writer who explores the darkest realms of the human mind, but fails to come up with any explanation to justify his narrator's motives. In the end, we want something more than questions - even if the answers aren't known.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful Work
Review: If some of the other reviews metion this work as "Masterful" and as "a character study", that is true. The first thing you could think of after completing this book is: "What a character!" Meursault is quiet a creation. He begins and remains a man unaffected by life and the genius of Camus lies in presenting this authentically. Even as he is enjoying a holiday at a beach nothing, beyond the fulfillment of the moment, can give Meursault any satisfaction, nothing seems to affect him. Reading this I am reminded of Dostoevsky's Underground man and Kafka's K., from his "the trial". With this story Camus takes a step further from Dostoevsky and Franz Kafka. Unlike K., Meursault is prosecuted for a crime that is clear, but the feeling of a man against the system remains. You do feel that he has been given a raw deal but even so somehow his fate seems for the better. Meursault himself shows some affectedness towards the end, but quickly reconciles himself. Here we have a glimpse of the process of his character formation, someone who looks at death as an inevitable consequence and hence reconciles to his fate without complaining. This is novel at its best as an art form, it is interesting and it is food for thought. You are interested in his fate as the judge hands out his sentence to Meursault and then later, much
later, you wonder about the person, his philosophy and its effect.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm still reading this book, doesn't make any sense though.
Review: Only read a quarter of it, and it seems as something important should have been said already.
-Calvin Newman
Rating:
Summary: Crime and Punishment in Algeria
Review: Set on the northern coast of Algeria, THE STRANGER is more a
psychological novel than a hard-core crime read. The story opens with the death of the protagonist's mother in a distant old people's Home. The young man, to whom Camus never gives a first name, is a mild-mannered, unambitious office worker, who treats Life as a spectator sport. His calm and cool demeanor during the all-night vigil and subsequent funeral surprise and repel the residents who knew his mother. Dazed by lack of sleep and dizzy from the long walk to the village church in blistering heat, Meursault says little and remains outwardly unemotional.
Back in Algiers he spends a pleasant weekend with his casual girlfriend and agrees to help an acquaintance from his building write a warning letter to his unfaithful Moorish mistress. The plot is barely visible up to this point, when the gender and racial feuds become a serious vendetta. Emotions escalate as tropical passions erupt in both premeditated and implusive violence. If Part I may be called The Crime, Part II proves the Aftermath. The unnamed anti-hero can be described as the prisoner and later as the defendant. His vauge, controlled responses confound his interrogators and dismay the earnest Catholic chaplain. More concerned with adjusting to the harshness of prison life, Meursault devises a mental stategy to cope with deprivation: women, cigarettes and personal freedom.
Even hs court-appointed defense council often despairs of him during the long months before the actual trial. This novel provides interesting contrast between French and American
courtroom prodcedure. But why is the strange prisoner--almost outside the pale of normal human emotions--really on trial: for the murder of an Arab who was stalking his friend, or for not being a good son? Was his "Crime" against society in general more shocking than a beachside shooting practically in self-defense? Narrated in the more intense first person, THE STRANGER offers insights into social (or emotional) deviants--examining how civlization seeks to justify or punish them. Camus
deliberately ends his story prematurely--leaving readers to fill in their own denouement. Is society truly in danger from the dark tides of one man's soul? How could this Sizzling Sands murder have been prevented? Just what has the prisoner learned
from his experience with French Justice?
Rating:
Summary: The Stranger means a hell of a lot.
Review: The basic problem of The Stranger is
alienation. Meursalt kills a man, but
doesn't feel sorry for killing him.
Why not? Is it because his mother died
a few days earlier? Is it because of
his refusal to believe in God? May it
just be that his life is utterly meaningless?
Those who read the afterword in the Penguin
edition of The Stranger (The Outsider)
must consider the author's explanation -
'So one wouldn't be far wrong in seeing
the The Outsider as the story of a man who,
without any heroic pretentions, agrees to
die for the truth.' 'The Stranger doesn't
mean anything' is a lie. Why? Meursalt
doesn't think so. Secondly, Albert Camus
doesn't think so. And thirdly, the
reviewer doesn't think so.
Rating:
Summary: Absurd Freedom
Review: The Stranger is as beautiful as any work of art can hope to be.
It is in the latter parts of the book, where Mersault's words have a lyrical power not seen previous, that the English translation achieves the haunting effect that must be even more prevalent in the French. The first thing readily obvious is that the character has no emotional connection to what he experiences; he simply experiences. Thus, Camus utilizes an American style, terse and detached. Some reviewers were off put by this. "How could he not care that his mother died? " Attaching immorality to Mersault merely shows a total misunderstanding of the book.
Camus believed in "absurd freedom," life has no inner value and is futilely cut short, but it is up to us to determine our life in such uncertainty. If one doesn't interpret life, emotion doesn't exist. But the values that society has incriminate you if you don't conform. They make you strange. They take no account of individuality.
That is the peril of the main character after a bizarre series of events on a sun drenched beach.
The power of Camus is that even though he creates such a bleak, hopeless human situation the characters still go on as best they can, perhaps even attaining happiness. "One must imagine Sisyphus happy," to quote The Myth of Sisyphus.
That is also the power and beauty of mankind.
Rating:
Summary: If You Like Kafka And Dostoevsky, You'll Get It
Review: The Stranger narrates a story about a purposeless and common little man.
The word "stranger" in itself should give you a clue that perhaps you should question why details.
Mother died yesterday, I think, but doubtful.
Does any of this matter? It's all pointless and trivial.
Camus illustrates (his form of existentialism) in this short novel the unpalatable concept of being on your own in the world. In the book the main character kills an Arab, and is detached from his actions and devoid of all emotions. When Meursault faces death for committing murder he begins to think about the absurdity and meaninglessness of life.
Camus did a wonderful job writing this novel in a simple style, but it is not for everyone, especially for those that don't ponder their purpose, question mortality, wonder why about everything, or simply contemplate this type of view of the world.
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