For the first time in a long time I thought about Maman. I felt as if I understood why at the end of her life she had taken a 'fiance,' why she had played at beginning again. Even there, in that home where lives were fading out, evening was a kind of wistful respite. So close to death, Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again. Nobody, nobody had the right to cry over her. And I felt ready to live again too. As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself - so like a brother, really - I felt that I had been happy and that I had been happy again. .
A timeless classic, this is the most well-read book of Camus. Written in 1946 it reads like a modern text. The stranger in this story is a man detached from the life around him. He lives detached in his own world, intelligent but uncaring of what surrounds him. Existential philosophy is defined by the central figure, although Camus referred to it as expousing the absurb. This short novel is extremely dense while still being easy to read and follow. It is an amazing piece of writing in that it gives the reader so much in so few pages. Classic themes that continue to resonate leave the reader thinking about this book for a long time after finishing it. I now understand why this book seems to be on everyone's must read list. Read it if you haven't already.
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