Rating: 
Summary: Life is like a comedy: pointless, but enjoyable!
Review: "There is but one truely serious philosophical question and that is suicide." That is the famous first sentence. I think that he should've said there is only one practical question in philosophy and that is suicide; that would have been a fact, rather than a value-judgement. He states his conclusion early, perhaps so no-one gets the wrong idea, which is that recognising the absurdity of life is not a reason to die, but rather a reason to live on freer than before. He condemns the concept of hope as a killer of life, later on, as well as all religious meanings given to life.
I think this book is of most use to those who have recently lost their religion, to those who have lost a loved one and to angst-ridden youths. The central conclusion - that just because life is meaningless does not mean that it is bad - is not something that most people would dispute, but it is rather something that is hard for people to accept emotionally, when you may have had meaning provided for you by religion or by your family beforehand. Camus tries to show quite a diverse way in which life can be affirmed, despite its absurdity; he talks of indulgence in the "Don Juan" section, but then glorifies literature later on. On this point, if you are not familiar with the works of Dostoyevsky, Kafka or the figure of Don Juan, you will not understand the last third of the essay.
Camus makes clear in this book that he is not an existentialist. He calls this attitude "philosophical suicide", as it occurs when reason comes up against its limits and choses to negate itself then [e.g. Kirkegaard with faith, Heidegger with anxiety]. Camus thinks that you should recognise your limits and live within them; this means aiming for quantity of pleasure, rather than quality - a more realistic aim. He is, in my opinion, closer to Schopenhauer [despite the lack of metaphysics] than to the existentialists. He also quotes Nietzsche a lot [so that it gets a bit too annoying, at times], although he does not share Nietzsche's grand idea of conquering everything and showing pity to no-one.
Some have commented that this book is heavy in philosophy. I would say that this is the lightest philosophy gets; it is often classified in a "fiction" section, rather than in "philosophy". Someone also said that the absurdist attitude Camus has leaves no room for morals. That was not what this book is about! That person should look up "The Rebel", where he deals with that issue very profoundly.
One thing I found a short-coming in this book is that there are several complications with the issue of suicide that he does not address. For example, if you live under some totalitarian regime, where you can neither indulge in the excesses of Don Juan nor read the books of Kafka nor write anything creatively, where should the meaning of life lie there? Perhaps, this is when the state is trying to be like a religion and assign a value to life for its citizens. As he says on the first page, "a reason to live is an excellent reason to die". Also, in his treatments of religions, he is rather narrow and does not address the Eastern faiths. Schopenhauer saw them as the best answer to the absurdity of the world. Does not Buddhist calm and meditation provide an alternative, without asking to belief in any meaning of life? I was disappointed that he did not address this.
Rating: 
Summary: not totally bleak as all that, but NOT optimism by any means
Review: (...)
camus' writing has a unique, very personal beauty to it, but in some ways i find it tame and (his essays in particular)boring. for all of his talk about how we can find beauty in everyday life despite it's lack of coherence, intention or purpose, the realization that everyday life and the world of appearance is the only reality still is a very devastating one. his stubborn and stoic insistence to celebrate only the trivial, sensual pleasures of life comes off so well only because of his considerable talent, but when you actually take sensuality of any kind to it's limits in your own life you discover that it is actually quite hollow and deceptive. i'm not trying to make an argument for religious belief or a return to a non existent ethic of transcendence or metaphysical meaning here, but this whole crock about existentialism being essentially creative and rosy is just untenable. camus himself said several times in different interviews that he was "quite obviously not an optimist". he is not nearly as pessimistic as sartre and i firmly believe that his work is infinitely more valuable (not to mention a hell of a lot less useless and gloomy) than sartre's, but at bottom the message is the same and predominantly horrific. there is no ultimate justice in the universe and our lives are ephemeral dreams destroyed forever by death.
Rating: 
Summary: Just a few thoughts, not an actual review
Review: ...First of all, coming off of THE STRANGER, the incredible generalities spewed in this book are pretty thick and tough to comprehend. Camus uses the term "lucid" over and over, but his book is anything but. The titular essay, spanning roughly a 100 pages, has its moments and flashes of brilliance, but much of it, in the opinion of this public-school jackass, could be easily excised with no loss to anybody. The sentiments, and Camus' philosophy, emerge loud and clear, but they are covered up in unnecessary dross. The other essays do not elucidate anything in particular, and they can be even hazier. Overall, it becomes increasingly more and more frustrating...especially when we reach the point when Camus begins pining for Greek sculpture, which fits in with no other part of the essays. It's a useful explicit statement of beliefs, but it's not much as writing.
Rating:
Summary: essential essays from the erudite essayist
Review: A topnotch collection by the philosopher who could write what he thought and felt with such sincerity and grace. Cutting past the usual philosophical speculations (does the mind have six categories or nine?), Camus gets to the point at once: is life worth living?
Rating:
Summary: Camus as Robert F. Kennedy's Muse
Review: After reading "The Myth of Sisyphus", I begin to understand my hero, Robert F. Kennedy better now.
It was during the years after the tragic death of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, that Robert was finally free for the first time in his life to struggle to create his own identity and sense of purpose.
In his journey of self examination that followed John's assassination, Robert explored the writings of ancient Greeks, beginning with "The Greek Way" by Edith Hamilton.
But it was in the existentialist writings of Albert Camus that Bobby Kennedy finally found a way of thinking that helped him to make sense of life's absurdities.
For anyone who is facing some difficult or very strange challenges in their life, I strongly recommend a serious look at Albert Camus' writings, beginning with "The Myth of Sisyphus".
It's not optimism, to be sure, but it does help one to make some sense out of troubling times.
Rating:
Summary: The absurd presence !
Review: Albert Camus made one of his masterpieces essays with this clever and fundamental issue .
The sense of the absurd has few times so merciless , incisive and bitter as in this case .
As one of the legitimate descendents of that huge tree , Fedor Dostoievsky , Camus explores meticulously the esssential facets and describes with supreme maestry the roots of the absurd .
He decides to make a journey where the literature , the history , the philosophy and mythology melt to produce an admirable and superb text .
If you are (as I do) a hard fan of Camus ; do not wait for a second and try to get it as soon as you can .
In my opinion , Camus was the most important ambassador of the existencialism movement . He lived as he wrote ; and that remarkable aspect is a glorious and brave statement of living.
Rating:
Summary: Electrifying
Review: Along with Voltaire, Diderot and Montaigne, Camus ranks as one of the greatest of the "philosopher-essayists". "The Myth of Sisyphus" revolves around the question of suicide, in Camus's view the most important philosophical problem. Can it be justified or not? Camus answers in the negative after presenting the reader with a stunning assembly of sophisticated arguments and observations. The writing is free of the dull, discursive, parenthetical style common to serious "academic" philosophers. It is even free of the rhetorical bombast and the whirling, cataclysmic declarations that characterise Nietzsche, to whom Camus himself is indebted. The prose is masculine, elegant, soulful. An electrifying meditation on absurdity and nihilistic despair, rendered with insight and feeling.
Rating:
Summary: A way out of despair...or is it?
Review: Camus posits a way to remove oneself from the deapair caused upon realising the futility of existence. The method is to appeal to the absurd nature of that existence itself, and in a sense breed a complete indifference to it. Excelently written, and excelently argued, it is up to the experience of the reader to discern whether as an existential art the notion itself is possible, or should be catagorised as nothing but mere mental masturbation!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and thought-provoking
Review: Camus' writing is here illuminated in beautiful translation by Justin O'Brien. What a treat. If you are interested in existentalism or enjoy reading Satre, Hesse, or that fellow who wrote the bit about Zarathustra, I can very certainly think you'll find this lovely text the cause for hours of quality thinking. Can I give it a much better recommendation? Sure. I could say that I loved every second of it and agreed with it completely, but that wouldn't be accurate. I will say that I found every paragraph a good reason for thinking hard: it is conceptually dense and resounds with sound logic enriched with a velvet world of asthetic ideas masking bare truth. How very absurd indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Calling All Pessimists!
Review: Hello people...life is worth living! Camus proves it in this wonderfully written, easy to understand, anti-suicide essay. After reading an excerpt from it in high school, I wanted to read the rest, and do not regret doing so. Even if nothing requires you to read Camus, I suggest you give it a try anyway. Maybe your outlook on things, such as everyday struggles, will improve a bit.
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