Thursday Book Group
The Stranger
This week I read The Stranger, by Albert Camus.
Originally written in French,
this version was translated by Matthew Ward.
"The Stranger" is a stranger to all.
To himself.
To us.
To his neighbor.
To his neighbor's dog.
To his girlfriend.
Let me introduce you...
His name is Meursault.
The whole book is written from his perspective, yet we do not delve too deeply into his mind.
I wanted to believe he wasn't telling us everything that was going on up there, but he was.
At the beginning his "Maman" passes away and the story continues from there.
He meets a girl the day after his mother's funeral.
Eventually,
She asks him if they are going to get married.
This is his account of how it went down:
"That evening Marie came by to see me and asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn't make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't love her.
'So why marry me, then?' she said
I explained to her that if didn't really matter and that
if she wanted to, we could get married.
Besides, she was the one who was doing the asking and all I was saying was yes.
Then she pointed out that marriage was a serious thing.
I said, 'no.'
She stopped talking for a minute and looked at me without saying anything. Then she spoke. She just wanted to know if I would have accepted the same proposal from another woman, with whom I was involved in the same way.
I said, 'sure.'
Then she wondered if she loved me, and there was no way I could know about that. After another moment's silence, she mumbled that I was peculiar, that that was probably why she loved me but that one day I might hate her for the same reason. I didn't say anything, because I didn't have anything to add, so she took my arm with a smile and said she wanted to marry me.
I said we could do it whenever she wanted."
Long quote, but it basically sums up his personality.
He says yes, no, sure, and adds little to most conversations.
Just a bit of a floater.
His neighbor, Raymond hits the girl that supposedly cheats on him.
They go to a beach with Marie and 2 other friends.
The girl's brother finds them and comes after them with a knife.
Raymond comes back with a gun and Meursault takes it from him so he doesn't do anything stupid.
The brother and his gang go away.
Meursault goes for a walk on the beach without realizing he's walking back to the same spot they just fought.
The brother returns.
Meursault has Raymond's gun and shoots the brother.
He ends up having a trial, etc.
**I won't give away everything!**
He barely shows any remorse
and is never sure if he did it on purpose.
He blames the heat.
He only shows an opinion towards anything right at the end. The preacher talks to him of God, but Meursault doesn't believe in God.
He snaps and starts wailing on the preacher.
He let's us know that life really has no meaning because we all are going to die in the end.
He says this, "I had been right, I was still right, I was always right. I had lived my life one way and I could just as well have lived it another."
What a sad way to live life...
I like to believe life does have meaning, even though it might seem pointless to live it one way or the other. This book showed me that it's important to give our lives meaning instead of walking around with no real conviction.
Sorry to break it to you Meursault,
l i f e c a n b e h a p p y !
In the end, "The Stranger" remains a stranger to me.
I'm fine with that.
Side note:
I actually read this book in 2 days and decided to read another before the week was up.
"The Ordeal of Change"
I won't talk about it too much because it's not on my list!
Just wanted to remember one quote.
"Words shape thought, stir feeling, and beget action;
they kill and revive, corrupt and cure.
The 'men of words'-priests, prophets, intellectuals-have played a more decisive role in history than military leaders, statesmen, and businessmen."
How true.
The saying
"sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me"
should be true, but mostly isn't.
Words can do a lot more damage or a lot more good to one's soul than any broken limb.
For an uplifting video on words,
Next week:
The Devil in the White City
by
Erik Larson
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