Books by author: Albert Camus

In tone, this reminded me a little bit of Nabokov's Despair. In The Fall, Camus lays out a philosophy of judgment, both of self and others. He appears to champion pragmatism, while at the same time casting it in a bad light. Jean-Baptiste Clamence is indeed A Hero of Our Time, and Camus seems to condemn us through him by revealing the condescension in our acts of mercy. Camus is very quotable, and I was compelled to underline some passages extensively. I would recommend reading one chapter per day, rather than reading it all at once. It is short, but reading it in accordance with the passage of novel-time would give the reader more opportunity to digest the ideas.

There are a couple of passages in here that I think are references to The Stranger, but I'm not quite sure. Overall, this book is about coming to terms with the fact that there is no God, and that we are meaningless bits of matter who need to think that we have a purpose in order to be happy. Camus seems to think that love between people is the only thing people can somewhat control that can make them happy. I'm drop-dead tired as I write this, so I'm not going to bother trying to write an intelligent review.

This is the first piece of existential fiction that I have read — at least that I can remember. I'm extremely sympathetic toward the main character in this story, who is utterly rational and emotionally detached. I fear that in a similar situation I would share his fate. My only real deviation from the existentialist philosophy is that I rather strongly believe that human existence is understandable in idealistic and scientific terms (though perhaps not in all it's wonderful complexity, by a single person). The Stranger is dark — wonderfully so. One of the last scenes, in which the protagonist speaks with a prison chaplain, was extraordinarily deep and described perfectly how I feel when talking to religious people about human existence and related issues.