The Plague by Albert Camus

I didn't want The Stranger to be the only novel by Camus I ever read, and the latest Vintage International paperback edition of The Plague had an excellent cover, so I found myself again wading the waters of this Frenchman's "idea writing." I call it that because there is much more (roughly) objective description of emotion and psychology in this novel than there is dialogue addressing those same issues.

As might seem obvious, this novel is about an outbreak of plague. It takes place at a port town named Oran and quickly leads to a quarantine. From within the shut walls, we are able to follow this lives, even in broad outline, of a doctor, a journalist, a priest, a criminal, and various others. Each one struggles for hope or escape, sometimes achieving these goals and sometimes simply discarding them for new goals.

I absolutely loved this book. I relished every page, rereading entire paragraphs frequently. Camus occasionally seems repetitive, but he is actually circling around a very fine point and only after a little while does he finally hit that point on its head. It is worth the wait.

There isn't much of a plot to examine, and the characters are such vehicles for philosophy that it's hard to talk about them as individuals. This is, essentially, a novel of ideas and not events.

Sorry this entry is a little scant, I've been very distracted lately.