Rating: 
Summary: a favorite for 16 years...
Review: I won't go so far as to say that this book changed my life, but it sure put things into perspective...I first read this book at the age of fourteen, just a year after my father died. I knew nothing about philosophy...the book was sitting on our living-room coffee table (my brother HAD to read it for class)(and hated it) but the cover intrigued me. I had never read a book in one sitting before (I know, it is short, but I do have a short attention span...) but it hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. I recommended it to everyone that would hear me. I read everything that I could get my hands on by Camus. It remains a favorite. If you are happy with your life, and I mean pathologically happy with your life, you might want to avoid this book because it will make you think and re-think. It is so simple, but that IS the beauty...
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Summary: Reconciliation with the absurd.
Review: After reading "A Happy Death," Camus's first attempt at The Stranger, I've come to appreciate this book much more. The narrative style is much more effective for Camus in developing themes of personal alienation, as it was for "The Fall." Also, I've found The Stranger to be more Kafka influenced, and the parallels between Joseph K. and Mersault are very apparent -- its clear that the model of K. was used to clarify the position of Camus's absurd hero. This book is not really a portrait of atheism, as some say. Its more a description of man's struggle with his own superfluity and his final reconciliation with his indifferent universe. Mersault is not a contemptible man: he is a rational man, only even he does not realize why. Through him we are meant to explore the distant vegetation of the absurd man, the climate of his universe, not its details. Not a somber novel; a beautiful one if read correctly. One of the greatest books ever written.
Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: What a dazzling book. A profound and heartfelt statement on the nature of man against a society who condemns him because he is different, because he cannot find it in him to lie or be false to his own moral code so he is punished for it and his punishment finds his freedom. The book is a haunting testament to our world nowadays and will be forever remembered because some essences of societies never change and the one in this book accurately shows that. along with being a masterful tale, a perfect introduction into Camus's theories of man and existentialism which set the movement in motion with Sartre, the novel can be read by any lay person but only the inclined mind or in this case, the stranger who reads the book will understand the value of its extreme importance and the values it preaches and the absurdity of life. Mersault is a young man who remains unaffected by events around him, even his own mother's death. why? Mersault is different, its not that he doesn't care or has no sense of emotion or feeling but its because he lives moment to moment instead of jumping back and forth between present and future....This is a must read for any serious reader or person interested in philosophy or the essence of man. this book is greatness pesonified in the magical pen of Camus.
Rating:
Summary: Stranger...
Review: One could translate the original title of this book also as foreigner, which I think describes more or less all of us at one point or another in life. The language Camus uses in this book is simple, yet the book is only as simple as life...! I think often readers want to be able to completely identify or completely not-identify with the main character. Anything in-between is harder to deal with; this book is all the things in-between. It is a great book that I could recommend to those who in general like Sartre and Kafka.
Rating:
Summary: The Stranger : 20th Century Masterpiece
Review: Reading The Stranger gives you the chance to see the world through the eyes of Meursault, a young, attractive, successful man who expresses NO emotions or conscience whatsoever... At his mother's funeral he hardly indicates that he is in mourning other than by wearing a black armband. When his girlfriend asks him to marry her, he says yes, but not because he loves her-- He agrees to marry her because he feels that he might as well, since it will not make a difference in his life anyway. When he receives a lucrative job offer in Paris, he turns it down, explaining to his boss, "one life is as good as another". While Meursault is pointing a gun at an man, his thoughts are "to shoot or not shoot". Just as he makes all his other decisions, with indifference, he shoots and kills the man... and I won't tell you the rest. Albert Camus was the first person to publish a book written in a certain form French past tense, so as to give it a more active, flowing feel. It has been said that The Stranger is one of the masterpieces of the 20th Century... so find out for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Life-changing work.
Review: The Stranger changed my worldview (Weltschauen?) by changing me. If you'd care to analyze Mersault with me for a second, you'll notice that one of his main characteristics is that he doesn't care what other people think of him. His thoughts and actions are not dictated by the reactions it may elicit from those around him. Also, he is completely honest with himself and doesn't delude himself into thinking that he feels emotions which are actually not forthcoming. For example he doesn't either mourn or pretend to mourn at his mother's funeral. It may make other people think of him as a cold, uncaring person, but as far as he's concerned, at least in my opinion, she died when they stopped seeing each other. What Mersault does care about is experiencing the simple pleasures in life, and, in the process, fulfills whatever mundane obligations are necessary to for him to survive in either a civilized bourgeouis society or a jail. In other words, if you let him live life as he sees fit, he won't cause any trouble and will even help you when he feels it is necessary to do so. When unavoidable constraints are placed upon him, such as not being able to smoke in jail, he acclimates himself to the constraints and goes on experiencing whatever simple pleasures are possible in a jail cell. However, if cause him trouble for no reason or try to convert him to your way of living or thinking, he'll defend himself and take the offensive when the opportunity arises. Mersault does what he wants. If you deliberately try to get in his way, watch out. What I'm trying to say here is that Mersault was as free as any human could possibly be. He viewed the world something he could enjoy living in no matter what conditions he was living under. If other people didn't like him for it, so what. Life was made to be enjoyed, not worried or mourned over. So, in conclusion, I guess it changed my world view by giving me a philosophy of how to live my life in it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, really makes you appreciate your life!
Review: Boy, this guy had quite a life - his mother passes, he gets into trouble with the law - and through it all he seems to be in a dream-like state. This story follows the life of the main character through his trials and tribulations. It definitely makes you appreciate your life...nothing could ever be as bad as this guys!!
Rating:
Summary: funny and frank
Review: In a book such as "The Stranger", the style in which it is written deeply effects the overall quality of the book. By this, i mean that what this book is known for and was written for, namely, to "demonstrate the absurd", is found as much in the Tone of the writing as in any plot development, etc. And, it seems that (at least in the first half of the book) the short, frank sentences, as well as dialogue, convey Camus' message perfectly. This is because Camus is attempting to give us a character who has "no illusions about the world" to cover up the fundamental absurdity, he lives strictly by way of bodily pleasure/ pain, taking the path of least resistance. Thus, in order to convey such a message, long and elaborate sentences probably wouldn't work. Hence, we are given a character who not only supposedly has no illusions about the world, but also doesn't try to burden the reader with complex words. The frankness of the writing provides for funny moments depending on your given sense of humor, such as when Mersault, the main character, discusses marriage with his girlfriend, confirming to her that indeed he would marry anybody and that it really doesn't matter. In addition to Mersault, the "absurd hero," there are of course those characters who live by fantasies about great illusions, working towards some greater good and justice. These characters are mostly found in the second half of the book. Mersault never changes his philosophy about life, which is basically "go with the flow", however, whereas the first half of the book this philosophy gains him friends and sex, in the second half, in the hands of "the law", gains him the reputation of a hardened criminal. It should also be noted that those people who think themselves to be farthest from the absurd (those in the court, police officers, etc.) are usually presented as those who in fact are most absurd and behave most ridiculously. Overall, this book makes for good discussion and a most enjoyable read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Vessel for Existentialism
Review: When I first read this novel I found that the plot of the story was less interesting, and less important than the personal philosophy of the main character, Meursault. Meursault has an indifferent approach to life, he does not believe in sustaining relationships, he indulges in the pleasures of relationships, only when it is convenient for him. One could define it as "carpe diem" but it seems not to be completely accurate with Meursault. Anyway, the plot should not have been the vessel for the man's personal philosophy, that is my only qualm with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Existential Addiction
Review: Find a couple hours in your busy life to read this book--yes, everyone. In this very existential story, the Stranger, Camus shines a bright floodlight into the soul of modern man. Told in the first person by the Stranger awaiting death by the State's guillotine, it is obvious by the very telling of the story that the man was never so put to death. It is also obvious that the Stranger was totally indifferent to whether he was or was not put to death. The death of the Stranger's mother sounds the breakfast bell for his own demise. Later at the beach murder scene the Stranger undergoes a Paul-on-the-Road-to-Damascus-like enlightenment. The Stranger describes this event very poetically. He sees a shaft of light shoot upward from the steel blade of the Arab's knife. He sees "Cymbals of the sun clashing on my skull and ... the keen blade of light flashing up from the knife, scarring my eyelashes and gouging into my eyeballs." Next, "the sky cracked in two, from end to end, and a great sheet of flame poured down through the rift." Had the reader seen what the Stranger saw he too may have emptied the pistol bullets into the poor Arab. "And each successive shot was another loud, fateful rap on the door of my undoing." Beginning with the murder he was "through with the unreal years of my life." The Priest visits the cell and forces his trite message upon the prisoner. The Father asks, "how do you picture life after death?" The Stranger wants very little. He answers, "A life in which I can remember this life on earth. That's all I want of it." The prisoner's certainty of death was totally sufficient, it was something he could get his teeth into and that was far better than a brittle, fragile belief in God. The torture of waiting for his own death emptied him of hope, thus allowing him to lay "his heart open to the benign indifference of the universe." Thus sharing, so brotherly, his fate with the universe made him realize that "I'd been happy, and that I was happy still." In death the prisoner would attain public recognition of his indifferent life. "All that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration."
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