The Stranger

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Summary: A great venture into the Philosophic mind of Camus.
Review: A great story as a stand alone, but this book shows us the counter of our values, needs, and wants. The book challenges our principlas on everything we hold dear, from love to death... if you consider yourself a thinker, this book is a must.

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Summary: Possibly the best book of the century
Review: Without going into the sundry possible interpretations of Camus' existentialist novel about a young French Algerian's struggle between repressing and coming to terms with his entire life, suffice it to say this story will keep the reader riveted to the book until every single word is read. This is what literature is all about.

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Summary: A book for everyone......
Review: The Stranger is Albert Camus' most accessible book. Camus, the existentialist, gives us the portrayal of a man (Meursault) that on the outside appears to be a man of indifference. But as one delves deeper into the book, Meursault's life seems to come a bit more into focus. One cannot fully understand Meursault, but one does tend to understand why he is the way he is: deep, intricate, personal, reflective. Meursault will at times amuse you, at times anger you, at times cause you to lose all care for him, only to gain it back on the next page. Thats a credit to Camus' genius. And in the end you may just begin to wonder who "the stranger" really is. Meursault? Society? Yourself? "...I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate."

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Summary: Meursault, "King of the Absurd"
Review: In regard to Camus' prose, it seems to allow the reader to project and assemble Mersault as his society did. Readers seem to make infinite constructions of Mersualt, who is as organic as an auto-trope. The stripped bare bones of existence, without the drama of King Lear. Camus wanted to strip down his character's life, to outline our time of "The Failure of the Enlightenment." Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God, now the unbearable heaviness of being falls on our shoulders, devoid of comforting "truths" of the universe. Camus seems to be saying that when faced with the daunting prospect of death, the end of a finite existence, man and woman feel the acuteness of themselves. Here, we must affirm ourselves and prepare to affirm whatever we have ever done, without looking for redemption through God's grace. Why delude yourself about the finiteness of your own life? Society needs its applicable "truths", filled with essences of morality. Mersault makes himself incapable of fooling himself.

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Summary: A Great Character Study About Alienation From Society.
Review: A great novel about a normal man that is imposed upon difficult situations that one would never be able to prepare for. The lathargic caring that he has for his mother's death and for his own show that even though he was placed in a stressful situation he didn't change. That is what was so great about Mersault, he didn't change. He was different thn others in society. He wouldn't turn to god at any point in the novel showing an inteligent stubborness. A great novel that should be read by everyone to give them insight on what some people might be thinking.

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Summary: Enigmatic, profound; definitive Existentialism
Review: "The Stranger" by Albert Camus is an allegory of our times. A young Algerian, Meursault, commits an absurd crime one hot day on a beach. In a world without meaning, he commits a meaningless act. The retribution, however, for murder is profound and so is the walking philosophical problem that Camus has created with his character, Meursault. The reader waits for a logical conclusion but is confronted only with larger questions. "The Stranger" is a definitive Existentialist text because it enacts a conception of the problem of existence and proves its own point via anti-climax. Only Sartre's "Nausea" really compares to "The Stranger" in its impact on Existentialist fiction. It is a critical character study in the psychology of loss for modern times. The Algerian Meursault lives his life as if inside a house-of-mirrors and his pointless crime brings his chimerical existence into sharp relief, exposing the false reflection of his ominous life. With "The Stranger", Camus paints a convincing portrait in a terse style with believable characters who act out the psychological problems we all must eventually face.

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Summary: .
Review: I agree with the reviewer a few back who says that there is better existentialism to be found, and that the reading of Crime and Punishment is a bigger and more rewarding experience. But a part of Camus' appeal is his simplicity and straight-forwardness, and the fact that he does not soak his narrative in philosophy. They are philosophical stories, in a sense, but the philosophy is left in the background, the subtext, only surfacing to the forefront at key, carefully controlled moments. I admire Camus for his restraint and aesthetic tactfulness. However, at the same time I'd like to point out that I also think he's sometimes grossly overrated. Aesthetic restraint and the ability to struture a story evenly are only worth so much. Big-time Camus fans seem to enjoy knocking Sartre; but sometimes flaws, personal idiosyncracies, and a certain sense of admittedly pseudo-intellectual adventure can actually make a book more rewarding and human. Camus' deliberate sterility of style is something I can respect, and certainly something I find interesting, but it isn't necessarily the most commendable literary trait in the world.

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Summary: extrodiniary insight on a man's thoughts
Review: The Stranger is an extrodinary story that makes you think and wonder. Its detail and emotions make you want to read on forever. The book really effects your thoughts and it allows you to see human nature easily,

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Summary: amazing but cold-hearted
Review: I didn't expect Camus to be optimistic, of course, but The Stranger absolutely haunted me. Meursault's plight is all of ours. His crime, basically the crime of indifference, is something of which no one can, really, be acquitted. I am sort of a withdrawn person, and Meursault actually appealed to me as a character, although his actions repulsed me. Overall, this book was very frightening in a good way (especially the end of it).

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Summary: There is better existentialism to be found.
Review: I feel compelled, on behalf of all of those interested in existentialism, to add my threnodic voice to all the other numerous and predominantly ebullient reviews of Albert Camus' *The Stranger*. As. I have stated in my summary, there is better existentialism to be found. If I wished to be rude, I would say that Albert Camus is just a Dostoyevskiy/Kafka 'wannabe'. I do not so wish it, so I will merely state that this book does not suffice to place him in the same catagory as those masters. If you really enjoyed Stranger, then *Crime and Punishment* will blow you out of the water.