joaoheredia_colaco's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
danutza's review against another edition
5.0
incomplete :( nevertheless, so powerful/
memories/
fire, passion/
the characters, everything felt so alive and dynamic/
interesting stories/
beautiful descriptions/
very long sentences/
i really do wish he got to finish it
and i wish i had this book in my bookshelves
memories/
fire, passion/
the characters, everything felt so alive and dynamic/
interesting stories/
beautiful descriptions/
very long sentences/
i really do wish he got to finish it
and i wish i had this book in my bookshelves
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
5.0
‘So, for years, Jacques’s existence was divided unequally into two lives between which he was unable to make any connection.’
In 1960, Albert Camus died in a car accident. The handwritten manuscript of this incomplete autobiographical novel was found in the wreckage. It was published, thirty-four years later, by his daughter Catherine. Albert Camus’s wife and friends were afraid to publish it at the time of his death for reasons Catherine Camus explains in her introduction.
‘The First Man’ is the story of Jacques Cormery’s return, at the age of 40, to Algeria, and his reflections on his childhood there. The novel follows Jacques’s life from birth to his years in the lycée in Algiers. The novel explores childhood and school, Jacques’s love for his mother and his search for a father who died during World War I. The novel may be an incomplete draft, in need of editing and further polish but it has its own raw power, with its insights into a happy but difficult and poor childhood. The novel is also about the colonial history of Algeria, and the relationship with France. Poverty and illiteracy have their own impact, on Jacques and his family, and on their interactions with the world.
‘To begin with, poor people’s memory is less nourished than that of the rich; it has fewer landmarks in space because they seldom leave the place where they live, and fewer reference points in time throughout lives that are grey and featureless.’
The lessons Jacques learned from his life included his ultimate disappointment at winning a brawl in the schoolyard: ‘And then he knew that war is no good, because vanquishing a man is as bitter as being vanquished.’ There is also his embarrassment at reading film subtitles aloud to his illiterate mother and grandmother at the cinema, and his joy when a public library opens near the lycée.
Those more familiar with Albert Camus’s writing than I am may see insights into his other works that I, having not yet read them, cannot appreciate. I read this for a reading group discussion and am moved by the power of the writing, and the realisation, by Jacques Cormery, of the power of literacy. There is a sense too that the acquisition of literacy, as a precursor to written memory, becomes part of an individual’s responsibility to society. Albert Camus may have been writing about himself as he collected thoughts and ideas for this novel but I doubt that he was only writing for himself.
‘And he too, perhaps more than she, since he had been born in a land without forefathers and without memory, where the annihilation of those who preceded him was still more final and where old age finds none of the solace in melancholy than it does in civilized lands.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In 1960, Albert Camus died in a car accident. The handwritten manuscript of this incomplete autobiographical novel was found in the wreckage. It was published, thirty-four years later, by his daughter Catherine. Albert Camus’s wife and friends were afraid to publish it at the time of his death for reasons Catherine Camus explains in her introduction.
‘The First Man’ is the story of Jacques Cormery’s return, at the age of 40, to Algeria, and his reflections on his childhood there. The novel follows Jacques’s life from birth to his years in the lycée in Algiers. The novel explores childhood and school, Jacques’s love for his mother and his search for a father who died during World War I. The novel may be an incomplete draft, in need of editing and further polish but it has its own raw power, with its insights into a happy but difficult and poor childhood. The novel is also about the colonial history of Algeria, and the relationship with France. Poverty and illiteracy have their own impact, on Jacques and his family, and on their interactions with the world.
‘To begin with, poor people’s memory is less nourished than that of the rich; it has fewer landmarks in space because they seldom leave the place where they live, and fewer reference points in time throughout lives that are grey and featureless.’
The lessons Jacques learned from his life included his ultimate disappointment at winning a brawl in the schoolyard: ‘And then he knew that war is no good, because vanquishing a man is as bitter as being vanquished.’ There is also his embarrassment at reading film subtitles aloud to his illiterate mother and grandmother at the cinema, and his joy when a public library opens near the lycée.
Those more familiar with Albert Camus’s writing than I am may see insights into his other works that I, having not yet read them, cannot appreciate. I read this for a reading group discussion and am moved by the power of the writing, and the realisation, by Jacques Cormery, of the power of literacy. There is a sense too that the acquisition of literacy, as a precursor to written memory, becomes part of an individual’s responsibility to society. Albert Camus may have been writing about himself as he collected thoughts and ideas for this novel but I doubt that he was only writing for himself.
‘And he too, perhaps more than she, since he had been born in a land without forefathers and without memory, where the annihilation of those who preceded him was still more final and where old age finds none of the solace in melancholy than it does in civilized lands.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
kdog's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
estellabelle92's review against another edition
4.0
Nothing worse than an incomplete novel by an author whose life was cut short. I am glad I was at least able to see the skeleton of what was to come. Now I need to go read the full book.
tyraohrnberg's review against another edition
4.0
bra bok! jag älskar camus! lite mer spänning så hade det fan nog blivit en 5a.
nichknack's review against another edition
5.0
It breaks my heart that this book will never be finished.
zakshep's review against another edition
3.0
The actual bulk of the plot wasn't my favorite -- no matter the author I never enjoy plots focusing around childhood/adolescence. However, the small glimpses of Jacques as a grown man and Camus' notes at the end make this a worthwhile read, in my opinion.
robk's review against another edition
5.0
The First Man stands apart from the rest of Camus's works in my opinion. Most of Camus's writing weighs heavy with philosophy, and while there's plenty to think about in this book, The First Man reads more like a memoir of the author's childhood than an allegory on absurdism.
The First Man is a roman a clef that illustrates the amazingly humble childhood of a great philosopher and writer. The novel was unfinished at the time of Camus's death, and, interestingly, it has been published with the author's annotations, footnotes, endnotes and sketches. At one point, Camus mistakenly used his last name instead of the main character's, which speaks to how closely some of the events described in the book resemble the author's life.
And an amazing life it was. Months after Camus, known in the novel as Jacques Cormery, was born, his father died in action in World War I. Thus, the burden of raising Jacques fell on his deaf and blind mother. Jacques's grandmother helped rear the child, however, while the mother worked as a laundress for the neighbors. This made for a rather abject living condition, and the way Camus describes growing up in poverty is eye-opening and heartbreaking.
Fortunately, Jacques was a gifted student, and his teacher helped him get a scholarship to attend secondary school--which enabled him to eventually rise out of his poverty.
Ugh, my review is making The First Man sound like a Ragged Dick story, which it is not because it isn't so much about escaping poverty in terms of wealth, it is about escaping poverty in terms of life. Camus describes his native Algeria as a place where:
He goes on to say:
The First Man explains how Camus became 'the first man' by becoming a self-actualized, moral, social human being. It is a process we all go through, and it works in stages.
To help us through the stages of life, we must rely on the wisdom of others, and in The First Man, Camus describes the illuminating quality of literature, saying that he devoured library books indiscriminately and copiously, "retaining just about nothing, except a strange and powerful emotion, that, over the years, would give birth to and nurture a whole universe of ideas and memories that never yielded to the reality of [his] daily life."
Camus's story vividly describes the brutal reality of his daily life as a child, but despite the harshness of his condition, the novel is full of hope. It feels like a fond recollection. It was truly a joy to read.
The First Man is a roman a clef that illustrates the amazingly humble childhood of a great philosopher and writer. The novel was unfinished at the time of Camus's death, and, interestingly, it has been published with the author's annotations, footnotes, endnotes and sketches. At one point, Camus mistakenly used his last name instead of the main character's, which speaks to how closely some of the events described in the book resemble the author's life.
And an amazing life it was. Months after Camus, known in the novel as Jacques Cormery, was born, his father died in action in World War I. Thus, the burden of raising Jacques fell on his deaf and blind mother. Jacques's grandmother helped rear the child, however, while the mother worked as a laundress for the neighbors. This made for a rather abject living condition, and the way Camus describes growing up in poverty is eye-opening and heartbreaking.
Fortunately, Jacques was a gifted student, and his teacher helped him get a scholarship to attend secondary school--which enabled him to eventually rise out of his poverty.
Ugh, my review is making The First Man sound like a Ragged Dick story, which it is not because it isn't so much about escaping poverty in terms of wealth, it is about escaping poverty in terms of life. Camus describes his native Algeria as a place where:
whole mobs had been coming for more than a century, had plowed, dug furrows,... until the dusty earth covered them over and the place went back to its wild vegetation; and they procreated, then disappeared. And so it was with their sons. And the sons and grandsons of these found themselves on this land...with no past, without ethics, without guidance...All those generations, all those men come from so many nations, had disappeared without a trace, locked within themselves. An enormous oblivion spread over them.
He goes on to say:
and he who had wanted to escape from the country without name, from the crowd and a family without name...wandering through the night of the years in the land of oblivion, where each one is the first man, where he had to bring himself up without a father, ..., and he had to learn by himself, to grow alone in fortitude, in strength, to find his own morality and truth, at last to be born as a man and to be born again in a harder childbirth, which consists of being born in relation to others.
The First Man explains how Camus became 'the first man' by becoming a self-actualized, moral, social human being. It is a process we all go through, and it works in stages.
To help us through the stages of life, we must rely on the wisdom of others, and in The First Man, Camus describes the illuminating quality of literature, saying that he devoured library books indiscriminately and copiously, "retaining just about nothing, except a strange and powerful emotion, that, over the years, would give birth to and nurture a whole universe of ideas and memories that never yielded to the reality of [his] daily life."
Camus's story vividly describes the brutal reality of his daily life as a child, but despite the harshness of his condition, the novel is full of hope. It feels like a fond recollection. It was truly a joy to read.