Review: The Stranger

The Stranger by Albert Camus
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book starts out as a slice of life in Algiers in the 1930s, until a crime is committed and we follow the trial. The narrator/protagonist is indeed strange, as he seems indifferent to most things and people, just going through the motions of life, with little empathy and care, and the only time he seems to care about something is about sex with his girlfriend. Spoilers below:
(view spoiler)[I will admit that it took me a while into the book to realize that the narrator/protagonist is a psychopath, and only then I started to see the point of the book. Maybe this is the literary groundbreaking aspect of the book, that it was being told from the point of view of a psychopath? Otherwise, I cannot see how it was philosophically groundbreaking or even remarkable. It seems to me that philosophically, the only important part of the book is a single conversation that happens at the very end of the book, when there is finally some sort of vindication to the story being told, when the authors ideas are exposed; and I guess it has some weight precisely because of the framing as being the words of a psychopath, who is free to say things like that; who is free to ponder the meaning of life without consideration for the psychological and social (including religious) aspects, as he really doesn't care for that. Then finally, it makes you think. And maybe you can go back and appreciate some of the subtleties of the earlier parts of the story. (hide spoiler)]
But it's likely that this novel had such a big impact because of the novelty at the time, because of the context in which it was written. I think that today, almost 80 years after it was first published, after we are familiar with existentialism, it is hard to feel the shock and impact that the novel delivered at the time it came out.
One more thing that I found interesting is the fact that a lot of descriptions of the novel point out that it came out in Germany-occupied France (Algiers was a colony) during WW2, and that remarkably, the German government did not censor it. I really do not see what it could possibly have found to censor - the novel does not feel subversive at all. At best there is a clear anti-church message to it, but that's not something Nazis would be necessarily against. Other than that, you need to do a lot of interpretation and read a lot of commentary to get any subversive meaning out of this novel.
Well, at least it was short.

View all my reviews

Review: A Mind of Her Own

A Mind of Her Own by Paula McLain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked the premise of the story - the love story between Marie and Pierre Curie! Sure, you could see it as minimizing the story of a great woman by focusing on her relationship with a man; but I was rather focusing on the elevating of a romantic story with an infusion of science and revolving around someone so amazing and intriguing!
However, it was a bit disappointing. While it was mostly well written, a lot of the internal monologue was hinting at Marie Curie's future, but in a way that was completely out of place (it was her "present" voice, talking about the present, but then making allusions to things that would occurs in the future). Also, and more importantly, it was too short - it didn't cover nearly enough to be able to say that this was about their love story - it was only a very brief look at their initial meeting. But the part that was there was good, and was interesting, so I would still recommend it.

View all my reviews

Review: A Meeting with Medusa

A Meeting with Medusa by Arthur C. Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun short story! It starts slow, the interesting part only starts in Chapter 2. Initially I thought it was going to be weird to hear a story about human exploration of Jupiter, but they make some good arguments for it. Despite some dated concepts, I always like alien contact stories in which the Aliens have wildly different biologies. I was also surprised to see the "Prime Directive" here - I wonder what is the connection with Star Trek? Finally, the ending chapter was interesting, seems to be pointing out to a greater story and larger themes, but then it just ends. Still good though!


View all my reviews

Review: Atomic Adventures

Atomic Adventures: Secret Islands, Forgotten N-Rays, and Isotopic Murder by James Mahaffey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good number of interesting stories and anecdotes about physics during the 20th century - some giving a good look behind-the-scenes for well known stories and almost-discoveries - there is some really fascinating stuff in there. It's really made for people interested in physics, as it can get very technical sometimes.

View all my reviews