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April 22, 2005

The Outsider

The Outsider - Albert Camus

*** SPOILERS ***

What is the correct length for a novel. Stephen King can churn out more than 1000 pages. He can dissect the lives of ten or twenty characters in that space. Camus gives us just one real character here in around 100 small pages, and yet somehow his novel is a great existential masterpiece, whereas King gets slated as a hack.

Meursault is the protagonist, and the whole story is told by him in the first person. He is a strangely detached individual, who seems to observe his own life rather than live it. He has an office job that he is happy with, he lives alone but has friends. He had sent his mother to an old peoples home, and at the beginning of the novel we find she has died. After attending the funeral, he gets back home and forms an attachment with a young woman called Marie. He doesn't really have any feelings for her, it's just quite nice and convenient When she asks if they should get married, he just says 'sure'. He'd be happy to marry any attractive girl.

Meursault's neighbour Raymond is a violent man who beats up his girlfriend, an Arab girl. The girl's brother follows Raymond to a beach where he has gone with Meursault and Marie for a day out. Somehow Meursault finds himself approaching the Arab, who draws a knife in self defence, and Meursault shoots him with a gun which he has actually taken from Raymond to try and avert it's use.

Mersault is arrested and tried for the crime. He answers truthfully to all questions, and his lack of emotion doesn't help his case. He is sentenced to death. Whilst awaiting the sentence to be carried out, he is visited by a priest, who tries to convince him to embrace God. Meursault does not believe in God, which exasperates the priest, who cannot believe how someone could face death without repenting their sins.

"Killing an Arab" was an early song by The Cure - here is the chorus

"I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm a stranger
Killing an arab"

If you've ever heard the song, then you will not be able to read this book without thinking about it. Like The Cure themselves, this book is bleak, dark, and unsettling. Meursault is obviously guilty of the crime, but he doesn't appear to have any moral view on it. If someone doesn't really understand why what they have done is wrong, should they be punished? Is this 'outsider' a part of society? What should we do with people who do not conform to normal types of behaviour?

The 'plot' is a simple one, the writing is dry and subdued, with little in the way of excitement. What the story is there for is just to illustrate these moral questions. It's certainly succeeded in creating an odd and memorable situation, but it's not really a novel. It's a 'one trick pony', a short story with only a single point. A novel should really have more than one strand.

AE0.5

Posted by se71 at April 22, 2005 11:51 AM

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