#89 The Stranger by Albert Camus

“The sun was in my eyes,” is an excuse one gives for not catching a ball in the outfield. In this novel, however, it amounts to Monsieur Meursault’s defense for committing murder. It was hot and bright the day Meursault, a Frenchman living in Algeria, shot a young Arab five times on the beach. Perhaps Meursault was suffering from heatstroke. The strange thing is not only this flimsy defense; it is Meursault himself. His mother’s death, a proposal of marriage, the fact that he has killed a man, it’s all the same to him, for he feels no emotion. Meursault’s indifference ultimately saves him, though not from the hand of justice.

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