****
Fine character study, even if the author himself doesn't appear to understand him. Meursault is a young Algerian man who never quite does anything the way society expects him to, including murder. He drifts through life entirely in the present, without regrets, without deep attachments, without empathy, and without a conscience. He is, in a word, pathological. The character is both beautifully consistent and remarkably true to life, and because Camus himself introduced murder into the equation, it might be said that this book provides excellent insight into a type of real life murderer, showing us that they aren't Jekyll and Hydes at all but how instead, for them, horror and normality spring from the same source and are connected by indifference. Nothing really frightening happens in this book, yet it is one of the scariest books you will ever read. Yet Camus later wrote of Meursault that he is a man "condemned because he does not play the game," which makes the poor guy sound like a victim himself. In fact, he is, just not for the reason Camus offers. At one point in the story, Meursault muses that he could have done things differently had he chosen to, and Camus seems to believe this. Yet the portrait he draws proves just the opposite: that Meursault is a man who is what he is, a victim of the genetic lottery, even less likely to act against his nature than the rest of us, being somewhat simpler than everyone else for the lack of certain basic human characteristics. This lack makes him fascinating, but we might all be better off if we reserved the bulk of our sympathy for his victim.
Fine character study, even if the author himself doesn't appear to understand him. Meursault is a young Algerian man who never quite does anything the way society expects him to, including murder. He drifts through life entirely in the present, without regrets, without deep attachments, without empathy, and without a conscience. He is, in a word, pathological. The character is both beautifully consistent and remarkably true to life, and because Camus himself introduced murder into the equation, it might be said that this book provides excellent insight into a type of real life murderer, showing us that they aren't Jekyll and Hydes at all but how instead, for them, horror and normality spring from the same source and are connected by indifference. Nothing really frightening happens in this book, yet it is one of the scariest books you will ever read. Yet Camus later wrote of Meursault that he is a man "condemned because he does not play the game," which makes the poor guy sound like a victim himself. In fact, he is, just not for the reason Camus offers. At one point in the story, Meursault muses that he could have done things differently had he chosen to, and Camus seems to believe this. Yet the portrait he draws proves just the opposite: that Meursault is a man who is what he is, a victim of the genetic lottery, even less likely to act against his nature than the rest of us, being somewhat simpler than everyone else for the lack of certain basic human characteristics. This lack makes him fascinating, but we might all be better off if we reserved the bulk of our sympathy for his victim.
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