The Stranger: The Graphic Novel

Meursault learns of his mother's death, and travels to her nursing home for her funeral. Then he goes with a group to stay together for a few days, and, during the time there, he shoots and kills a man. Meursault goes to trial, and he is judged more about his perceived lack of character than for the murder itself, and he is sentenced to death.

That's the plot of the story. But the profound aspect of this book is Meursault himself. He is a character like no character I've encountered in literature. He seems unemotional, feeling little for his mother or his girlfriend or his friend. He appears to have no personal principles for acting or refusing to act in the world, whether it is to put his mother into a home, or to help a friend get revenge on a woman, or to get married, or, even, to kill a man. He is a stranger to the world. It was a deeply uncomfortable read. Neverthless, the character of Meursault seems deeply true, if horrifying.

The Stranger will go on my shelf of Awful-But-Brilliant books.

Side note: This is a graphic novel of The Stranger. The graphic novel format was perfect for this story, I think. I read it on my e-reader, which now has a way to zoom in on each panel of the graphic novel, adding to the isolation of the character.