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Summary: Meursault: Rebel and Hero
Review: Many people complain that The Stranger is a boring or maybe depressing book. I can see nothing depressing and if the book makes you think, how can it be boring? This book made me think, what is the meaning in life? What can we do to attach meaning to life? Is the way I lead my life the way that I would like to in an ideal situation? This book is essentually about society and those who are the most ingrained and dependant on society are those who will have the stronger reaction to it. Meursault, the main character, is a rebel to society, not in any exiting way but in that he refuses to fake emotions that he does not have. It is a rebellion in direct contrast to our society. If a murderer shows no remorse for the slain he is more likely to be locked away for ever or put to death. It is that exact emotion that is not felt or faked by his emotion that leads to his downfall. For those of you who like activism and/or satire their is plenty. The justice system is poked at as well as society. Finally I must say that the language is absolutely beautiful. Especially if you can read it in the original French. In his simple style Camus wins my praise for "talks least, says most."
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Summary: Calling all existentialists...
Review: Camus' The Stranger is a dull book on the outside. Simply reading it on a literal level will do wonders only for your sleeping. Essentially, itÕs merely a novel observing the life of the very passive and boring protagonist who lacks what one would normally consider a personality. However, on the figurative level, this book is filled with metaphors and deep statements about society. The Stranger is an existential and absurdist novel, featuring the "absurd hero," Meursault. The story takes place in Algeria in the 1940Õs. After his motherÕs death, MeursaultÕs life goes on as it had before. His interactions and opinions of people remain the same - nearly nonexistent. As his Ògo with the flowÓ attitude leads him into the public eye, he is scorned and shunned, and this leads to what I would describe as his Òtriumphant downfall.Ó This book is great for book groups, class discussions, or just those of us who enjoy reading a book full of philosophy and metaphors. It seems that almost every event and character can be analyzed. The statements made in this book are so profound, that I felt the need to reanalyze my life, even the parts that were previously concrete. This book also sparked my interest in philosophy and existentialism, and has inspired me to read more books on the subject. If you enjoy philosophy, existentialist works, or stories of rebellion, I strongly suggest The Stranger by Albert Camus.
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Summary: Why I Liked The Stranger
Review: I had to read The Stranger by Albert Camus for my IB English class. Our teacher told us that it would be somewhat boring, but to his contrary it was not boring at all! I started reading it, and to tell you truth, I thought it was boring. I mean who wants to read about a man who is not going to show any type of emotion. Towards the end of the first part of the book it started to interest me. I had never read anything that used that perspective of writing. Through Meursalt, the main character, Camus displays his feelings toward our society and how it functions. This book is supposed to be satirical to the way society is . At the end of the book, Meursalt and the reader know why the world is the way it is. "I opened myself up to the gentle indifference of the world." All together The Stranger was a good book, that discribed one man's journey into the absurd.
Rating: 
Summary: A novelette for the toilet.
Review: This book is short. It's simplistic. This book would make excellent toilet reading if only one could resist the persistent urge to drop it between one's thighs.When reading a novel, a good indication that you are insensitive to art is if you overemphasize the themes, or ideas. Art is not concerned with WHAT is said, so much as HOW and HOW WELL it is said. From an artistic perspective, the style and execution are what count---not the subject matter. And so, the literary, or artistic, value of this book and its philosophical value are two separate issues. While I understand its emotional appeal to adolescents, I never found existential philosophy (`a la Camus and Sartre) to be very appealing on an intellectual level; and, I find fictionalized walk-throughs of philosophical ideas to be dreary without exception. Real artists do not generalize human experiences and reduce them to vague, overdrawn abstractions. And so, I would object to this book if it preoccupied itself with philosophical ideas; but, there is nothing as concrete or thoughtful as an idea in this book. Still, the characters are contrived, forced to act out Camus' whimsical "existential" formulas like stiff-jointed marionettes in the hands of a club-fisted puppeteer. From an artistic perspective: the plot is impossibly dumb; the structure is a trivial linear progression of (non)events; the characterization is almost entirely absent, and the characters are uniformly vacuous and wooden; the settings are barely even sketched; the narrative style is that of a mildly retarded six-year-old; the descriptions are banal and monochromatic; and, the dialogue is imbecilic. This book isn't even bad literature---it is perfectly inartistic! On the positive side, because the writing is so simple, it makes good practice reading for those learning French (I have to justify that star). While I'm profoundly indifferent to this book, I recommend it to professors of litterature and philosophistry, and to others who splash around in the shallow end of the intellectual pool and pepper their conversation with verbal baubles like "abyss", "void", "Nothingness", "absurd", and similar gibberish. If you fall into this category but want to be cured, start by studying "Lectures on Literature" and "Lectures on Russian Literature", both by Vladimir Nabokov; and "Western Wind" by J. F. Nims. For the philosophically inclined, start with Copleston's "A History of Philosophy". Study them---but beware, you may end up agreeing with me. If you insist on stories with similar themes, try these: * "Cancer Ward" --A. Solzhenitsyn (Bethell & Burg translation) * "The Death of Ivan Ilych" --L. Tolstoy (Edmonds or Maude/B.G. Guerney translations) * "The Dead" --J. Joyce They're much better than "The Stranger"; but, what isn't? splash...flush...
Rating: 
Summary: The Stranger
Review: I would have to say that Camus' The Stranger was one of the most boring books that I have ever read, but the point that he was trying to make was a good one. I thought that despite my dislike of the protagonist, I could still relate to the point that Camus made with this novel. Part One of The Stranger was the more interesting of the two because there was more action and more going on. Part Two was just the trial and the jail, which got repetitive after while. Although Part Two contains the essence of Camus' message and Part One is mainly to set up the second half, I most definitely enjoyed Part One more. To me, Part Two was basically hearing the same stuff over and over again, but with slightly different words each time. And this does get Camus' point across, but I got bored with it about half way through. I have read some of Camus' work before, and enjoyed most of it. I must say that I did not like this novel as much as some of his other works that I have read, but I did enjoy it more than other existentialist literature that I have read in the past.
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Summary: An important Reading Experience
Review: "The Stranger", by Albert Camus, is a much praised and widely read book. It can be said that its focus is greatly connected with the philosophy of existentialism. I have heard it considered as one of the most important existentialist books, a definite must for the reader who considers themselves to subscribe to that philosophy. Even if one is not considering themselves to be existentialist, the books content can be attractive to those who would at least like to explore the issue. The story centers around a man named Mersault, and more than anything explores his behavior, or lack of. Camus offers us a different type of character, one that doesn't express dramatic amounts of emotion, rather, one that expresses almost none at all. For readers who have not yet encountered such a distinguished and different character, this is definitely a book to read if one wishes to explore areas involving possible facets of human behavior. I would recommend this book exclusively for that purpose. Camus uses his character Mersault as a vehicle to express his existentialist ideas and propositions on the meaning of life, peoples actions, and the world in general. "The Stranger" is disturbingly iconoclastic and assaults the worlds conventional morality. For any reader, this book should be compelling as well as unsettling, all the while being completely absorbing. Camus makes striking challenges to conventional thought in such a way that no reader could remain unaffected. For the existential enthusiast, or the lay reader, this book promises to be a rewarding and enriching experience.
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Summary: an average review from an average teen
Review: I know that I should be all for expanding my literary horizons, and usually I am, but Camus' The Stranger is just downright boring. Sure, it made me think and that's great and all, but the story wasn't interesting to me in the least. The only reason I got a lot out of this book was because of the interesting class discussions that we had about different parts of the book. These discussions tended to drift away from the actual plot, which is one of the reasons that they could hold my attention more than the book could. Not to say that this book wasn't worth reading. It was a short book and it honestly made me think about my life and how I relate to the people around me. Also, since I was assigned to do the creative commentary on this book, I got more involved with it than some of the other members of my class. My creative commentary focused on the personality of the lead character, Mersault. He is compared to all of the other characters in the book who are flat and only there to bring out the absurdity in Mersault. This book also helped me to better understand existentialism. I had read works by both Camus and Kafka before, but this was the first one i truly understood. I think the class discussions may have played a role in that, because my teacher helped to explain the parts of the book that were unclear to us.
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Summary: Motif of Maman in "The Stranger"
Review: Phoebe Anderson February 23, 2000 One motif in Camus' The Stranger is the origin back to the mother of the main character. Meursault, the main character, finds himself at his mother's funeral not knowing the people she lived with in her last days and having no visible forlorn reaction over her death. Yet, in scattered points in the novel she is mentioned especially at times of trouble and concern. The story unravels into the life of this tactile-living, impersonal man and the absurdity he faces after the death of his mother. His mother's funeral seemed to be a burden on his life. "Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that really, nothing had changed." The next time Meursault thinks of his mother is at a time when he hears his stern-faced neighbor crying over the loss of his dog. Meursault had often observed this man, and was perplexed at the maltreatment he showed but still could not live without his dog. "And from a particular noise coming through the partition, I realized he was crying. For some reason I thought of Maman. But I had to get up early the next morning...I went to bed." His train of thought went from the crying neighbor to the loss of a loved one to his mother. She, although he packed her out of his house, left an impact on his life. It might not of been strong enough for him to cry at her funeral, but proves the inkling of memory is with him. "He realized that some people in the neighborhood thought badly of me for having sent Maman to the home, but he knew me and he knew I loved her very much." The dog-owning neighbor points out his concern for Meursault and to the audience his understanding for Meursault's love. Marie, his lover, came to visit him in prison. Meursault became distracted by the mother and son visiting near him. When it was time to go, he could not even focus on Marie but watch as "he said "goodbye Maman," and she reached between two bars to give him a long, slow little wave." He was caught up with the tie between this mother and son and their extended separation. Near his execution, he thinks of his mother. He reminisces about the only story Maman would tell him of his father. His father had seen an execution (the theory Meursault thinks he was there was of enjoyment) and returned home throwing up for the rest of the day. In this, Meursault finds comfort that his only memory can fulfill the absence a father figure. He thinks the only thing people are interested in are seeing an execution. Now, he is on the other side of it. He is the one whom his father would watch. "Maman used to say that you can always find something to be happy about." In his frantic last thoughts, he reached for an answer and a comfort for death. They were announcing departures for a world that now and forever meant nothing to me. For the first time in a long time I thought about Maman...Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again. Nobody, nobody had the right to cry over her. And I felt ready to live it all over again too."
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Summary: Meursault's Philosophy
Review: When I read the first half of The Stranger, like most people, I thought that Meursault was unfeeling, like a sort of beast. Then my opinions of him changed when I read the second half of the novel. Meursault became almost human, and I began to understand him and what he was talking about more. During the first half of the novel, Meursault seemed inhuman. He had no emotions: he didn’t care whether or not Marie married him, and he didn’t care that his mother died. He killed one of the Arabs that had threatened his friend Raymond without much of a reason but that the sun was irritating him. Yet this all changes in the second part. In the second half, the reader sees a different side of Meursault, the one faced with death. Meursault’s beliefs are revealed, too. And I tend to agree with a lot of them. I agree that the universe is meaningless. There is no god- our purpose on earth is not to earn our place in heaven. However, I disagree with Meursault when he says that we have no meaning to each other. That may be true concerning complete strangers, but no with our family and friends. When I read all about Meursault’s beliefs, I began to wonder whether I agreed with him or not. I found that sometimes I did, but often I didn’t- nonetheless, Meursault brings up some interesting points just before his death.
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Summary: Unrelentingly Truthful
Review: The Stranger, like most of Camus' works, focuses on the soul of man, and its reaction to certain situations. This book, I felt, was extremely depressing due to its truth of how the protagonist ends his life in a sense, making himself believe in his guilt to overcome the fact that he ruined a, more or less, wonderful life. Read this to gain insight. Warning: NO FAIRYTALE HERE
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