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A review by valealle23
The First Man by Albert Camus
challenging
emotional
reflective
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
4.25
i can’t even right now. this book is so beautiful, and i think the unfinished autobiographical nature of it is so jarring - especially considering that camus died in a car crash, just as unexpected and absurd as how he deals with death in the first man. it’s a part of life that makes it become so mundane it’s almost nauseating. the setting is gorgeous; the scenery of french colonial algeria elicits such clear images of a life i’ve never lived. jean’s love for his mother and disgust of himself, despite his relative innocence, is so telling of camus’s inner life too. i will admit it took a fat minute to get through this, but no regrets in the slightest. jacque is so perfectly himself, and even if i can’t really describe him, (cold and distant? warm and passionate? the most noble guy? all true and not at the same time) i know who he is. jacque is the first man but also the last in a sense, and his relationships will still render him sole. his meditations on poverty and the abject beauty of it? indescribable. i loved loved loved the notes and sketches part, but i do think it would’ve been cool to see his older side expanded on - even if his childhood says enough. i think the sketches give just enough without it being overbearing. if i could write like camus i would never stop, and i can only image the beauty in its original french.
ok i can yap ab camus forever so instead here’s some quotes (all from the notes and sketches part bc if not this would never end) that i wont ever forget:
“the longing, yes, to live, to live still more, to immerse himself in the greatest warmth this earth could give him, which was what he without knowing it hoped for from his mother; he did not get it and perhaps did not dare to get it, but he found it with the dog Bril lant when he stretched out alongside him and breathed his strong smell of fur, or in the strongest and most animal-like odors where the marvelous heat of life was somehow preserved for him who could not do without it.”
“Then, her blood on fire, she wanted to flee, flee to a country where no one would grow old or die, where beauty was imper-ishable, where life would always be wild and radiant, and that did not exist; she wept in his arms when she re-turned, and he loved her desperately.”
“"I've lived too long, and acted and felt, to say this one is right and that one wrong. I've had enough of living according to the image others show me of myself. I'm resolved on autonomy, I demand independence in interdependence."”
“Rescue this poor family from the fate of the poor, which is to disappear from history without a trace. The Speechless Ones. They were and they are greater than I.”
“One who wants to be better prefers his self, one who wants to enjoy prefers his self. The only one who renounces his self, his I, is one who accepts whatever happens with its conse-quences. Then this one is in direct contact.”
“He knew he was going to leave again, make a mistake again, forget what he knew. But actually what he knew was that the truth of his life was there in that room... No doubt he would flee that truth. Who can live with his own truth? But it is enough to know it is there, it is enough to know it at last and that it feeds a secret and silent [fervor] in the self, in the face of death”
ok i can yap ab camus forever so instead here’s some quotes (all from the notes and sketches part bc if not this would never end) that i wont ever forget:
“the longing, yes, to live, to live still more, to immerse himself in the greatest warmth this earth could give him, which was what he without knowing it hoped for from his mother; he did not get it and perhaps did not dare to get it, but he found it with the dog Bril lant when he stretched out alongside him and breathed his strong smell of fur, or in the strongest and most animal-like odors where the marvelous heat of life was somehow preserved for him who could not do without it.”
“Then, her blood on fire, she wanted to flee, flee to a country where no one would grow old or die, where beauty was imper-ishable, where life would always be wild and radiant, and that did not exist; she wept in his arms when she re-turned, and he loved her desperately.”
“"I've lived too long, and acted and felt, to say this one is right and that one wrong. I've had enough of living according to the image others show me of myself. I'm resolved on autonomy, I demand independence in interdependence."”
“Rescue this poor family from the fate of the poor, which is to disappear from history without a trace. The Speechless Ones. They were and they are greater than I.”
“One who wants to be better prefers his self, one who wants to enjoy prefers his self. The only one who renounces his self, his I, is one who accepts whatever happens with its conse-quences. Then this one is in direct contact.”
“He knew he was going to leave again, make a mistake again, forget what he knew. But actually what he knew was that the truth of his life was there in that room... No doubt he would flee that truth. Who can live with his own truth? But it is enough to know it is there, it is enough to know it at last and that it feeds a secret and silent [fervor] in the self, in the face of death”