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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Just Finished Reading: The Fall by Albert Camus

I just didn’t ‘get’ this novel. Or maybe I did and thought “…and?”

Billed as ‘The most perfect of his meditations on human isolation and bewilderment before an enigmatic universe’ this novel by the noted French philosopher and novelist told the story of ex-lawyer Jean-Baptiste Clamence who relates his life story to a stranger he meets in an Amsterdam bar. After years in a successful Paris career he decides suddenly that his life is a sham and begins to cynically manipulate the people around him. Seeing no value in anything the narrator’s response is a life of Hedonism punctuated with periods of drunkenness and sexual debauchery – none of which satisfies him in the least. Finally he decides that he must live as if he is the only person of value and that the rest of the world should either vanish or worship him.

…and that was it.

I did struggle with this book, thinking – just what is the point of the narrative… which may actually have been the point! It probably didn’t help that I read most of the 92 pages in my lunch break during a particularly hectic week at work, where I was often interrupted by visitors to my desk or by phone calls about the latest ‘crisis’. It’s hard to tell, though I don’t think that I can bring myself to give it a second ‘go’ just yet. I’ll let it simmer a bit in the back on my mind for a while. I do have two more novels by Camus which I shall be reading at a later date. I hope, and expect, I’ll find them a better read that this one – although maybe this is what Existentialist novels are like….. [grin]

7 comments:

Anonymous said...
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VV said...

I remember reading Camu's _The Stranger_ for a college assignment but not really connecting to the story like I've done with many other authors. I don't know whether it was the story or his writing style, I just didn't get into it.

dbackdad said...

I have both The Fall and The Stranger on my bookshelf where they have been gathering dust for years. I believe I read The Fall in a college philosophy class, but for the life of me, I can't remember anything about it. Your two's less than ringing endorsements of these two novels is not exactly pushing me to re-open those books any time soon.

CyberKitten said...

I have 'The Stranger' and 'The Plague' resting in the Pile somewhere. I'm not going to hurry to dig them out.

I think that the main 'problem' with The Fall is that is doesn't have a plot (and only one character really...). But I suspect that it's plotlessness is part of the reason it was written. But it does make it rather difficult to get into!

wstachour said...

Ditto for me. Read The Stranger a thousand years ago and don't remember anything of it.

Karlo said...
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Karlo said...

I really liked The Stranger. Never read The Fall.