Rating: 
Summary: Disillusioned "EveryMan" Refuses Hope and Peace
Review: This French classic strikes a refreshing chord with a new generation. Mr. Mersault encounters the horrors of life with a malaise of the unconscious. Camus brings together the complexities of life with simplicity and crisp language use (now seen by American eyes with recent better translations). The Stranger is an important work for the open, introspective reader. While Mersault comes across as pathetic, empty and lifeless, the listening reader will find himself in its pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully absurd
Review: This is not a long book and, to a young mind, it will not seem like a particularly deep book, except at end. It is worth re-reading to note the attitude to life of the main character, how indifferent he is to whether his girlfriend loves him or not, whether his friend is a pimp or not, which day it was that his mother died on, etc. Some parts in the book seem quite funny at first, but are really saying something serious: for example, when he tells his girlfriend that her question about whether he loves her or not is pointless and when the court treats the fact that he didn't cry at his mother's funeral as evidence that he is a dangerous individual. Although Camus is associated with pessimism, the book gives a feeling that life should be lived pleasurably, for we never know when death or disaster may come, and that looking beyond it for a meaning does not help anything.
Whether the book is a celebration of hedonism or not is hard to say. Camus came from Algeria, where the lives of most young men were not so very dissimilar from this book; was he celebrating this? Also, there is a fairly sexist attitude present in the book - not least in the prostitute who is beat up and has her brother killed by the main character. Perhaps, this was just part of the fiction and not part of Camus' believes, but it does seem a little insensitive to let something like that stand in the plot.
Also, everyone seems to be saying that Camus was an existentialist, which is something that he denied countless times, but no-one listened to him. Camus and Sartre wrote for the same newspaper and both produced dark books, but Sartre believed in phenemology, free will, "hell is others", which all seem to be very different from the attitude in Camus. "The Myth of Sisyphus", which everyone should read, sees Camus stating very clearly that he is not existentialist.
Rating:
Summary: Case study or story?
Review: This novel came highly recommended by a friend. I bought it at a used book store, fearing the worst and then regretting paying full price for a work of trash. Boy, was I wrong! The Stranger is one of the best books I've ever devoured. Albeit, it could have gone into more detail, given the story and the characters more 'meat', however, I can't complain about it's poignant quality. Mersault: Idiot? Victim? Extraordinary? This is left up to the reader to decide, which I loved. Mersault's actions made me think of the isolation that comes with being different and indifferent. Mersault did not CHOOSE to be indifferent, he was naturally. Or so I assume, because there never was an explanation for his decidedly rotten behavior toward the people close to him. I think this book's length was a factor in letting the reader make their own judgements regarding Mersault and his place in the theories of nihilism and existentialism. I STILL, after having read the book months ago, haven't made a definite decision. Hopefully, the conclusion won't come any time soon. I'm enjoying mulling the story over in my mind and talking about it with my book-loving friends. I recommend this book to anyone who is beyond the idle fluff of such writers as Dean Koontz and Jackie Collins. Feed your brain some oxygen. You'll never think the same way about life again. ...
Rating:
Summary: A work of art and a fine book. I hated it!
Review: This short novel by Albert Camus was written in 1946. It's about a young Algerian Frenchman, Muersault, who works at an office job and lives a dull ordinary life. He describes his mother's funeral with clarity and dispassion and, as the story unfolds, the reader sees that this detachment is the general theme of the book. He doesn't love his girlfriend but it makes no difference to him whether he marries her or not. He helps an acquaintance commit an aggressive act because he just doesn't care enough one way or another. And, eventually, he commits a murder and is arrested. The trial then focuses on this disaffected aspect of his character. The conclusion is inevitable. I found this book quite uncomfortable reading. As Muersault observed the world around him, I was caught up in it, found myself seeing it all through his eyes, trapped in his inertia. I entered his world and felt a weird kind of sympathy as well as identification with him. This was very troubling. The little book packs quite a wallop. Yes, I do see this book as a work of art. Every word resonates with double and triple meanings. And every word is like a hammer blow. I read it fast, trying to shake off its impact. That didn't work, however, because "The Stranger" will linger long in my mind. This is the philosophy of essentialism and the book is a classic. I just can't help the fact that I hated it.
Rating:
Summary: the best...
Review: When asked what I felt was the greatest novel of the twentieth century, this is the one I came up with a some moments for reflection. It is short, highly accesable, and contains some of the most fascinating and exhillerating insights into the nature of humanity. Camus' narrative touch is often breath-taking, and makes you want to learn French just to read the book properly. He manages, as a stylist, things that the likes of Sartre and Proust could only dream about. I love this book perhaps too dearly, but I would reccomend it to any thinking adult.
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