No. 6, Round One: Albert Camus

And so it begins: summer reading.  I always overestimate the time I will be able to allot to leisurely reading, so my list only gets longer and longer as the summers pass.  This summer, however, I am taking a different approach that will, hopefully, make this annual endeavor a tad more successful.  Three rounds, three writers: one writer I have longed to explore further; one writer I have never experienced; one writer I plan to revisit.

Round One: Albert Camus.

I shall commence with a collection of works by the great Albert Camus: La Peste, La Chute, and L'Exil et le Royaume.  While I have read L'Etranger, Le Mythe de Sisyphe, and short stories such as L'Hôte, I am ashamed to admit that I have not delved deeper into his oeuvres.  I consider Camus to be one of my favorite authors--an exclusive list of which any author should be honored to be a part.  I admire the way he writes and illustrates his characters; no detail escapes him, for like a detective, he reveals even the most seemingly trivial elements and proceeds to meticulously weave them into the story.  I consider Camus the "existentialist" (though Camus rejected the label) version of Honoré de Balzac--another of my most esteemed writers--for he fuses the realms of realism with l'Absurde, which, en bref, results from the conflict between the meaninglessness of the universe and one's failed search for meaning within it.  Camus describes the solutions to this dilemma as: (1) suicide (l'évasion de l'existence), (2) belief, either religious or spiritual, in a transcendent being, or (3) the acceptance of the Absurd, for which Camus himself advocated.

I highly recommend reading any work of Camus to anyone who has never done so as well as to those who have not done so recently, perhaps in the past few years or so.  Though I young, it seems that every time I have read L'Etranger or Le Mythe de Sisyphe, I feel differently about Camus' message.  Certainly this can be said about any novel or short story one has not read for a decade or two, yet I believe that the concepts and thoughts encompassed by l'Absurde and existentialism are worth revisiting and provide great insight to one's personal development-- both mentally and emotionally.  This does not mean that one must agree or disagree with these movements, but rather reflect on them with the hope that they will shed a light on one's personal journey and search for meaning in life.  Of course one could read Camus for pleasure as well, but I maintain this would only be denying oneself a fantastic experience of philosophical contemplation... and what a perfect summertime adventure-- no money, no planes, no tourists!