The second novel in my french literature journey! A masterpiece by writer and philosopher Albert Camus.
Frankly, I was both enthusiastic and excited to immerse myself in this literary adventure and discovery!
The first page and the beginning of the story, is about death!
The mother of our hero or protagonist has died. He knows about it through a telegram. He recounts what happened next, preparing for the trip to the city where his mother’s funeral would take place “the toxic and intolerant behavior of the boss, the journey, all his thoughts and feelings, all he was doing during the visit etc.”.
The author writes in such a simple yet subtle way. The contemplations, descriptions and remarks are all profound, realistic, intelligent, sarcastic and entertaining. The first few pages at the morgue and all of his impressions and conversations with the janitor reminded me of the TV drama series “Six Feet Under”.
There are also the passages where he evokes the atmosphere and the ambience, the particularities of the place, the faces and behavior of his mother’s friends and acquaintances, details so sensitive and rich in literary magic, in subtlety and wonderful visual description. In fact, the events of this story take place over a relatively short period of time, and yet what makes it iconic and poetic are the cinematic images it draws through its powerful and evocative words that exude emotion of the particular character or moment.
Oh it’s cute that the protagonist likes milk tea as much as I do!
Frankly, I devoured the pages and I took advantage of every moment while reading this novel in order to enrich my imagination . Also, I appreciate the romantic part, it’s about Maria. As usual, he evokes with subtlety and delicacy the allure, the attraction, the fragility, the excitement and the uncertainty of all that is tender and sentimental.
After his mum’s burial, I fell in love with the literary magic where he tells everything he did at home, the boredom and the restlessness, the spirit of his apartment, the analysis and the anatomy of pedestrian appearances, having a good time at the balcony looking down the street. His descriptive sentences and passages leave nothing to the imagination. They are such vivid and picturesque images of moods, gestures, body language and clothes. This standout author makes the monotony of everyday life a celebration, as his perspective and vision embrace the magic of the unseen and the ordinary!
As a result, he devotes a whole page or a few pages contemplating the aesthetic aspect of everything that is mundane and insignificant.
I must admit that at first I thought that this attention to detail and this particular subtle and thoughtful description of the writer was due to his loneliness and isolation from the protagonist and let’s not forget his melancholy a few days after the death and his mother’s funeral, and yet I have the impression that it is an intrinsic characteristic of his personality, because he continued to behave like that even during the weekend when he returned home and resumed his work and its busy pace. So it was never a question of boredom. Additionally, Camus writes in a cinematic manner where his text and words resemble a director’s visual technique and artistic style.
The second part of the novel, page 90:
The narrative changes profoundly, following an incident and a violent murder, that was the moment when I thought to myself here is the revelation, the fact that he was never ice cold and numb and that the death of his mother maybe what pushed him to kill a man and commit this horrible act!
And yet, this new reality characterized by court, trial and prison made him neither stressed nor scared, always indifferent or neutral, as usual drenched in cynicism! He never stopped analyzing and studying people, their characteristics, their gestures and peculiarities “guards, prisoners, visitors, lawyer etc.”, as if all what’s happening is an out-of-body experience. Our protagonist lived only in his head, in apathy and indifference!
Here’s the review in French on my (Foreign Languages Blog):
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