Rating: 
Summary: If not this, then what?
Review: It would be a shame for this book to not have a 5-star rating. This should be the instruction manual of life given to every person who has ever wondered, "what for?" Read this book, and remember that one can take even the most absurd and seemingly cruel punishment the gods can dish out and turn it into an inspiration. It will help to know a little about Camus' life, and his times, before reading these essays, but that should in no way take anything away from this one. The Stranger is probably his most accessible work, and The Plague was actually made into a movie. The Exile and The Kingdom is also fairly accessible, and all of these works as a whole should give a pretty good idea of Camus' philosophy, which was not nearly as bleak as sometimes has been thought.
Rating: 
Summary: well-thought out, creatively executed
Review: It's an intriguing novel. It expands on old ideas about suicide and builds its own. It is unique in its composition and as such it can be, at times, somewhat difficult to follow. Between the covers of the novel, Camus sometimes seems unsure of his actual opinion on suicide(or anything else for that matter). The Myth of Sisyphus is, however, one of the true classics in literature and is, by far, Camus best work.
Rating:
Summary: Let us roll the rock up the hill again
Review: Let us roll the rock up the hill again , as Camus has Sisyphus do. We know the rock will inevitably roll down, and that we will when we come down after it, come to the moment of decision and consciousness when we for Camus will have to decide whether to give in to the Absurd and let the rock rest or strive for our human dignity and begin rolling the rock up the hill again. And this with the idea that so long as we are rolling the rock we are not defeated, and there is human dignity in the world.
But let us leave Camus for a moment, and leave Sisyphyus .And let us forget the rock also .And let us quietly look up at the sky and tremble at the mystery of Being, and the wonder of what is that it is .This too is a kind of rock, the religious moment in which we wonder where all has come from, and whether or not perhaps beyond it all, there is a Creator not simply of rocks but of human minds and souls and hearts.
And then let us return to Camus and Sisyphus and their rock. And as we push it up the hill with all our hearts we feel then suddenly not alone but other human beings pushing it with us.And the rock not simply a rock but a foundation stone for the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. And all of us rock- pushers and prayers servants of God in a life that is meaningful.
Oh rock, Oh Camus, oh Sisyphus, O world with G-d that we can find meaning and joy and love in- in life that is no longer wholly Absurd.
Rating:
Summary: life after all
Review: Life is just a joke but who cares! Read Camus or Schopenhauer en realise that despite of all cruelty, life should still be lived. Both authors make clear in a very lifely stile that life ís absurd, bút, they also give the answer on the question why not to comit suicide. The beauty of it all: it makes sense!
Rating: 
Summary: Encore un autre moraliste...
Review: Ok, the book must be praised for its lucidity. The style too is not bad - it accomplishes something that is most difficult while dealing with philosophical subjects: to be clear whithout being shallow. I could even call it a great book (and give it more stars) wasn't for the hypocritical conclusion that ruins everything that was written before."Il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux" Yeah, right.
Rating:
Summary: This book is best read as a companion to The Stranger.
Review: Sartre said this book should be read as you read The Stranger, and I have found that advice to be valuable to my students. My kids are always a bit bewildered about the scene where Mersault kills the Arab, but when they read, "The greatest good is the greatest consciousness," they begin to see why the Stranger was so strange. And when he "awakens" just before dawn of the day he is to die, and the students read, "You must live your life as if you have been condemned to die and sun is beginning to rise," they begin to understand. The title essay for the book argues what I think is the final argument in the Ontological question raised by the Greeks: Since life is absurd, where the meanings should be is a vacuum, and we desperately want meaning when we recognize our necessary death, then we are free to make our own meanings, and it is the making of meaning that is the point of living; that is, the growth of individual consciousness. Camus, then, is the great optimist in a time of great pessimism.
Rating:
Summary: A few words about reading a book like this
Review: Seriously folks, I have never read such horrible reviews on amazon.com ever. The people who are supposed to be "reviewing" this book have launched into diatribes about why Camus' philosophy is "wrong" or why they dont agree with it. This is simply ludicrous.
Camus was a brilliant Nobel winning author. To know Camus, one must read this book, along with The Stranger and The Plague. I for one will be the first to admit that I do not understand all of Camus. I do not know enough to "criticize" Camus' philosophy. The reviewers here who have tried to do so have simply shown their ignorance. Bottom line, read this book if you would like to read Camus. O'Brien's translation is managable, if not a little choppy. Nonetheless, these are the standards of Camus that we all still read. They are the hallmarks that we use to justify Camus' brilliance.
Rating:
Summary: A few words about reading a book like this
Review: Seriously folks, I have never read such horrible reviews on amazon.com ever. The people who are supposed to be "reviewing" this book have launched into diatribes about why Camus' philosophy is "wrong" or why they dont agree with it. This is simply ludicrous.
Camus was a brilliant Nobel winning author. To know Camus, one must read this book, along with The Stranger and The Plague. I for one will be the first to admit that I do not understand all of Camus. I do not know enough to "criticize" Camus' philosophy. The reviewers here who have tried to do so have simply shown their ignorance. Bottom line, read this book if you would like to read Camus. O'Brien's translation is managable, if not a little choppy. Nonetheless, these are the standards of Camus that we all still read. They are the hallmarks that we use to justify Camus' brilliance.
Rating:
Summary: to brotherjudd
Review: Since your review was not completely that per se, but also your philosophy, it seems appropriate to respond to that philosophizing. The main question one comes away with after reading your article is: "why are morals necessary?" It is true that existentialist philosophy has trouble trying to establish morals. One could in fact say that it is impossible. But the existentialist would respond that the moral system in place right now is completely arbitrary and meaningless. "God" does not exist; there is no absolute, to fool ourselves becomes self-delusional. Ok, so that might be desirable. But most would desire the pursuit of truth. Most want to understand their existence. Some Christian myth or otherwise will not help propel humanity towards truth. Additionally, the myth of the absolute does not really always help direct human behavior in a manner that most would deem desirable. Case in point: the current state of affairs in the Middle East. These people, motivated by myth, are killing each other left and right. The animosity, in the name of the ABSOLUTE, results in homicide. Now, Camus' and other existentialists' attempts to establish a replacement for this absolute cannot be justified either. It does not work to justify the relative with the relative because, as you stated, everything is permitted. The relative allows for everything. But is this really so bad? Can it be relatively inferior to a world full of people fooling themselves? And can anyone actually say? Well, I suppose that there is intrinsically no coherent answer here. But it is a riposte and it is food for thought...
Rating: 
Summary: Read Camus Fiction First
Review: Some of the essays included in this book are difficult to understand, particularly for those who have not been introduced to Camus basic philosophy. While I think that the essays included in this book are important works, I think Camus expressed his philosophy more clearly in some of his fictional works (The Stranger and The Rebel). However, the title essay, The Myth of Sisyphus (which is only a few pages) is excellent. The book also contains Camus' insight into Kafka's work (especially The Trial). For those searching for meaning in a seemingly meaningless world, Camus is a must read -- but start with Camus fiction (The Stranger, The Rebel, The Plague) before reading this book.
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