Albert Camus' The Stranger (L'Étranger, 1942) is the short novel that follows Meursault, a man who shoots a stranger on an Algerian beach and then sits through a trial that cares more about how he behaved at his mother's funeral than about the killing itself. It runs about 123 pages. People file it under existentialism, though Camus' own label was absurdism, the idea that we go looking for meaning in a world that does not hand any back.

There is some really nice writing here, especially early on. The funeral, the heat, the beach. But the story never carried my interest the way I hoped it would.

Part of my trouble is Meursault himself. The reading I keep hearing is that his detachment is a philosophy, a refusal to fake feelings he does not have. I didn't read it that way. He just didn't seem to have good social skills. I found myself wondering if he was on the spectrum, or simply anti-social, rather than a man making some brave stand against meaning.

The part the book is built on, Meursault refusing to invent meaning where he sees none, struck me as a cop out on living more than a position to admire. It also made for a more boring book than it needed to be. Then again, maybe that is honestly what it is like inside some heads, and the flatness is the point I was meant to feel.

The trial is the section that worked best for me. He is convicted less for the murder than for not crying at his mother's funeral. That part rang true. We do judge people on whether they perform the right emotions, and Camus puts that on the page plainly. (Buy on Amazon)

A couple of facts I picked up around the book. Camus wrote it during the war, and it came out in Nazi-occupied France in 1942. He grew up in French Algeria, where the setting comes from. And it has been filmed more than once, including Luchino Visconti's 1967 version with Marcello Mastroianni.

So: a short, well-written novel with a couple of scenes I will remember and a main character I could not get behind. Three out of five. Worth reading if you want to argue with it.

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Philosophical Explorations

Camus' exploration of absurdity and meaning resonates with these reflections on purpose and existence:

AI-Assisted Development: The Awakening. On how reality shifts when the paradigm does.
Finding Purpose in the Age of Acceleration. On finding meaning while the technology keeps moving.