The Stranger
by Albert Camus

The narrator comes off as schizoid, and his personality becomes his undoing.

I went into this story blind, besides guessing from the title and Camus’s reputation for being an absurdist that it would be an exitentialist tale. I am glad to report that I have returned pleasantly surprised.

Stuart Gilbert’s translation is dry, but I think it suits the narrator fine. Most of the humor is contained in irony and contrasts between the outer and inner world, as well as how much of human behavior is ceremonially rigged.

Every man alive was privileged; there was only one class of men, the privileged class.

A shorter read of about 100 pages, I’d recommend it for those who don’t really give a damn about anything. There are better things to spend your mental energy on than weighing between whether you should read this good book or that gooder one, when both are equally likely to be decently entertaining.

Fun Stats

Word Count: 35739
Average Readability (US Grade Level): 7.88
Percent dialogue: 11.69%