Friday, March 18, 2016

Horror List Book Review: The Stranger

I'm reading through three lists of best horror with two friends (DeAnna Knippling andM.B. Partlow), posting reviews as we go. (For more information, including a list of the books, see this post.) To see the books I've reviewed so far, you can view the list at the end of this post where I rank them.

This week I'm reviewing The Stranger, by Albert Camus.


The only way I can figure this ending up on a best of horror list is because the dissociation of the main character is frightening to those of us who do feel. Or possibly because what happens in the end isn't necessarily just, but is more about people not understanding someone whose thought process is so alien from their own.

This was an incredibly fast read, well written. But it was not scary. It was certainly thought provoking, philosophical, but not horror.

The main character, Monsieur Meursault, goes through life in an apathetic fashion. Nothing bothers him. He is bored. He drifts, really, not fully living. Yet he does have some feeling. He can desire a woman, for instance. But he can't love her. Nor could he love his mother in the sense that most of us understand. 

In the beginning of the book, Meursault is concerned because he has to ask his boss for time off. But his mother has died, and he reasons that his boss can't be too angry since it's for a good reason. He doesn't grieve for his mother, something those around him don't understand. Having been in a situation where my grief was delayed, I really didn't find this so bizarre. It happens.

However, it keeps happening. It doesn't bother him that a neighbor abuses his dog. Or that another neighbor beats his girlfriend and shames her. In fact, he becomes friends with this guy, which ultimately draws him into a situation where he kills a man. The rest of the book is about the court case, where they pull all kinds of witnesses who report that he didn't cry at his mother's funeral, that he had sex and saw a comedy with a woman within a day of her service, that he supported a man who was beating his girlfriend. The reader sees that it isn't so much because he's a bad person, but because he views things differently, but the jury can't see this.

I left the book conflicted, which is, I believe, what the author wanted. I'm really not sure what to say in terms of the horror list review since I maintain that it isn't horror, but commentary. It's worth a read if you find the premise interesting. I've linked to the translation I read, since there are multiple. The book was originally written in French. Camus was Algerian, and that is where the book is set.

So...read it if you think it sounds interesting, and you want to follow along with a man immersed in apathy. Don't read it for a scare or any type of horror.

My new rankings:

1. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
2. The Bottoms (Joe R. Lansdale)
3. Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
4. A Choir of Ill Children (Tom Piccirilli)
6. The Year’s Best Fantasy: First Annual Collection (Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling)
7. Those Who Hunt the Night (Barbara Hambly)
9. The Stranger (Albert Camus)
10. Dead in the Water (Nancy Holder)
11. The Damnation Game (Clive Barker)
12. The Wolf's Hour (Robert McCammon)
13. Berserk (Tim Lebbon)
14. Best New Horror, Volume 1 (edited by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell)
15. The Tomb (F. Paul Wilson)
16. Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
17. The Imago Sequence (Laird Barron)
18. My Soul to Keep (Tananarive Due)
19. World War Z (Max Brooks)
20. From the Dust Returned (Ray Bradbury) 
21. The Red Tree (Caitlin R. Kiernan)
22. In Silent Graves (Gary A. Braunbeck)
23. The Cipher (Kathe Koja)
24. Drawing Blood (Poppy Z. Brite)
25. The Doll Who Ate His Mother (Ramsey Campbell) 
26. Hotel Transylvania (Chelsea Quinn Yarbro)

The next book I'll be reading is Penpal, by Dathan Auerbach.

Have you read this book? Was it by choice, or as a school assignment? What did you think? Did you think he deserved the ending?

May you find your Muse.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

I've never read Penpal, but I may look it up, along with others on this list. Horror book are always great reads, for me at least. I love the feeling of the hair standing up on the back of my neck (weird, right?). "Lucifer's Son" by Sergey Mavrodi, http://www.mavrodisergey.com/ is worth checking out if you're looking for a good horror read. Thanks for the honest review and for this list.

Yolanda Renée said...

Gosh I wish I had the ability and nothing bothered me. But no, everything bothers me! LOL
Great review!

Susan Kane said...

It would be strange to go through life with such a personality. Sad. Scary.

Andrew Leon said...

Well, this one sounds interesting. I probably won't read it, but I will have wanted to have read it.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Shannon - Interesting book and especially the review ... something we should probably all read - so we can understand these personalities. Humans are such a mix - and we so often think we all fall into the same category - yet as here a few fall out of the norm. Difficult to relate as there's no obvious outward difference ...

Thanks for this - cheers Hilary

klahanie said...

Hi Shannon,

A fast read, well written book is just the way I like books. A most comprehensive review by your good self.

I hope you have a nice rest of the weekend, Shannon.

Gary

Shannon Lawrence said...

Nah, it's not weird. Why else would we read horror if we didn't like the feelings it stirred? Thank you for the recommendation!

Shannon Lawrence said...

I'm unable to visit you back. It takes me to Google, which blocks all info from me. :(

Shannon Lawrence said...

After reading that, I don't think I'd want apathy. It would sure be nice not to feel quite so much, though, wouldn't it? No apathy, but maybe a little less empathy.

Shannon Lawrence said...

I agree. But would you know to be saddened by it?

Shannon Lawrence said...

I guess that's something. :p

Shannon Lawrence said...

Yes, the author certainly delved into something that makes a reader with empathy squirm and question themself and others.

Shannon Lawrence said...

I like that kind of book, too, especially when so many of these have been a struggle to read.