Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Camus' finest work, and one of the best books ever written., 9 April 2000
By A Customer
"The Outsider" is probably the most wonderful book that Algerian genius Albert Camus ever wrote, drawing in theories from "The Rebel" and "The Myth of Sisyphus" as well as existentialist ideas from the likes of Sartre into a blistering indictment of human society.Meursault, a bachelor, living in Algiers, leads a completely unremarkable life until he finds himself committing an act of violence. A man who is incapable of lying, in any sense of the word, his response challenges all of the absurd values which society holds to be fundamental. Meursault's responses to the law, religion and society shake at the very heart of what traditionalists hold to be morally correct. Incredibly readable, no book will change your way of thinking quite like this one. It says so much for Camus' incredible skill as a prose reader that the book manages to strike the reader so much in such a short and digestable length. Joseph Laredo's translation is superb, this book is fantastic - buy it and read it, over and over again.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Does this book still pack the same ethical and philosophical punch it once did?, 23 Feb 2009
One of the very few books that I have ended up reading twice, I first came across The Outsider long ago in 1962 when I was 17 and have just revisited it recently with my reading group, extremely curious to know whether the strong impression it originally made upon me would be rekindled.
In the main, it was not. Coming to this novel in adolescence as one of the first `serious' books I had encountered, and just before the social upheavals of the 1960s began, I found the story and fate of Mersault, who could not or would not lie or express the standard emotions that were expected of him, quite shattering of the world in which I had grown up. Over the intervening decades, I carried a memory of Mersault as a noble hero and of the type of society that I had grown up in as a hypocritical conspiracy against the expression of honesty of feeling. As much or more than Kerouac, Ginsberg and Dylan, it was this book that made me a small town, coffee bar existentialist.
On re-reading at a different age and in a different era, I was struck by a number of impressions. Mersault appears less heroic and emptier of human warmth. He tacitly supports his neighbour, a pimp, in his violence towards his girlfriend and the novel hints more at his racism in the motiveless murder of an Algerian on the beach, around which the novel revolves. His patterns of thinking seem now far less idealistic and almost autistic in character.
However, the sense of place and especially the evocation of the heat, sun, sea, the streets of the town, the courtroom and his prison cell remain convincing and beautifully expressed in clear, clean prose. Mersault's world view and his in-the-moment limited expectations still engaged me as a study of character, but less as an existential pioneer and martyr and more as an unreflective and mildly hedonistic individual.
I would still strongly recommend this book for its historical importance. Written during the second world war when Camus was fighting in the French Resistance, I first read it in early 1960s when publicly departing from the standard loyalties to school, church and state still felt like a dangerous undertaking. The book will now be judged by first-time readers against the mores of present times, times which have been fashioned by myriad forces including, as an early artistic tour de force, this novel.
My grading is an amalgam of my original and my current impressions - I hope this book continues to provoke and be appreciated.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Readable, Hypnotic and Disorienting, 1 Sep 2004
WOW - I just put down 'The Outsider'.As others have said, it is incredibly readable - the hundred or so pages just whizz by. Unlike one of the other contributors, I think it is the ideal book to read if you fancy something a bit more 'serious' than Tom Clancy. Its is accessible and very thought provoking - the very emptiness of the characters and environment is also profoundly compelling. I agree that there is a danger that the 'indifference' of the protagonist can turn the reader off - but I think Camus manages to steer it away from that. Some books do require alot of background knowledge for you to enjoy them properly - other better books (like 'The Outsider')are the spark to make you search for the knowledge to understand them more deeply. Its enough if you can just say "I'm glad I read that". If a book can ignite your interest in that way, then it opens up all sorts of avenues for you. Just as I wanted to know more about the Transcendentalists after reading Thoreau's "Walden" - now I want to know more about the Existentialists after reading the "Outsider". It's a great book - and the ending is like being hit in the face with a shovel.
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