Rating: 
Summary: A penetrating looking into the soul of nothingness
Review: The intellectual emptiness of the French spirit, a existential excuse to totally avoid self-preservation or any positive action, is adroitly depicted in this brief book of moral emptiness.The priority of normal life, from amoeba to kittens to citizens to complex societies, is to live and have control of one's life. The French have lost this innate sense of survival, and this story is an eloquent description of a young man who was once disappointed and thus forever insouciant. The focus of this novel is a character who is a stark contrast to the typical Anglo attitude of resisting state, religious and most other authority; instead, he presents a person devoid of values who simply goes limp even when facing the state authority of the guillotine. Such values nicely describe France and Camus. The French collapse in 1940 is described by the Germans as one of their "weekend wars." In 1942, Camus spent a year in 'Le Panelier,' an old granite house in the village of Le Chambon, leisurely writing 'The Plague.' Like this book, it is an examination of man's willingness to allow killing without resisting it. It's the attitude of a totally defeated and demoralized people, an anthem of, by and for spineless wimps. The Napoleonic era taught the French that hundreds of millions of Europeans rejected "liberation" when imposed by Franch cannons and bayonets. Since then, France has only survived as an independent state because of the hated "les anglais" who came to their rescue in 1914 and 1944. Utterly devoid of any effort to control his own fate, Camus adroitly portrays a character who -- like France itself -- is a doormat for anyone and everyone. It's a shocking book by American standards, but it inadvertently sums up the current French attitude that it's pointless to even attempt anything that resembles affirmative effort. Read it. Think of it as a contrast between the domineering aggressive attitudes of Americans and the surrender monkeys of France. It's an interesting insight into the mind and spirit of one of America's traditional allies; is timely, relevant and cogent.
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 true tale of a sociopath
Review: When I first read this book a few years ago I didn't understand how Muersalt could be so cold. Only after re-reading it recently I found that this novella is how a true sociopath would act. He's detached from the world around him, he doesn't care that his mother (who he affectionatly still calls Mommy) just died. He could care less if his girlfriend loves him or not and he has blatant disregard for human life, when he kills the Arab for no reason. Through all these ordeals he just doen't care; it's another day for him.
Maybe this is Camus' allegory about how the world is? Cold and detached from each other people that you know for years can turn out to be strangers.
Rating:
Summary: wkrc wcpo cpo
Review: what is not for Steve
the chickester you carry what?
after the Anfinsen graft is taken.. tachycardia is hooked
up with electronic dna to sex attraction
that is a standard biochemistry chart woodger kernal
erdos phermomones and Anfinsen graft e dna with biotic
perovskite...
cross section.. same as pigeon brain bee, squid
squid follow dripping gourd this time
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.
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: 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: 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 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: 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.
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