The Stranger by Albert Camus follows the story of a man named Meursault who is indifferent to everything around him. He is only really controlled by his basic primal needs, like hunger, thirst, sleep, etc. Throughout the story, he doesn't show any deeper connection to anything and only describes things at face value. This makes sense considering his personality is so indifferent, but it creates a dull story where that is very slowly paced. His failed attempts to understand the people around in and society as a whole which is very interesting to read.
I gave this 4 starts though because there were portions of the book where I got bored of the narrator's antics and knew how he would react to certain situations. It is also oddly only spoken in the present tense, adding to the narrator's personality. He does not understand emotions, especially within himself, which makes sense considering the title. The book is pretty short, but I think that it is worth reading. I didn't give it 5 stars because it didn't have that wow factor, it was just a good short book. I can't say it was my favorite or that I would read it again but I did think it was decent enough and worth finishing. Much of the writing was formed through the narrator speaking in a present tone, and always paraphrasing what others said rather than letting them speak out clearly.
I was frustrated in the beginning because Meursault seemed like an unreliable narrator, but that's just how he is. There isn't much to say since this book was really short, but it does go into the philosophy of absurdism. I did enjoy that, but the book was somewhat slow-paced and not filled with anything memorable. Although, it was a good book about how a man interacts with others while believing life is meaningless and not understanding emotions. I think the execution of the book was boring and reiterated the same idea over and over. I liked the book once I understood what it was about, but it was just boring.