Well this was a small book (120pgs) that took quite a while to read. It just seems to be hard to get any reading done lately. Always something on e.g. Joes Weedin.
Anyhow the book. The book, by Alexander Camus who as wiki tells us was a French-Algerian author, philosopher, and journalist who won the Nobel prize in 1957. He is often associated with existentialism, but Camus refused this label. On the other hand, as he wrote in his essay The Rebel, his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism. On the subject of his belief or not in God, he writes in the third volume of his notebooks: "I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist." Quite the character
Existentialism is the belief that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to deities or authorities creating it for them.
The story tells of a guy, in Algeria, who become trapped in a chain of events which eventually lead to his execution. The main character of the protagonist is his detachment from all events, a ride on the bus seems to hold the same level of interest to him as his mother dying or sex. We only see real emotion in the rejection of god near his death.
This detachment had, for me the effect of not making the book all so interesting and a little hard to read. I found it hard to interest myself when the main character wasn't even interested.
At any rate its hard to find a classic novel with so few pages so give it a go. I probably will give it a go again.
Now for something completely different - Great Expectations
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