By Ooh, that was interesting.
About the Book
Title: The Fall
Author: Albert Camus
Published: 1956
Series: (standalone)
Genre: classics, literature
My Rating: 4/5 stars
The Premise
Synopsis (from Goodreads) (truncated):
“Jean-Baptiste Clamence is a soul in turmoil. Over several drunken nights in an Amsterdam bar, he regales a chance acquaintance with his story. From this successful former lawyer and seemingly model citizen a compelling, self-loathing catalogue of guilt, hypocrisy and alienation pours forth.”
My Thoughts
The Fall is written in a unique style of prose, a long monologue in first person, addressing the reader directly, as if you are walking alongside Clamence as he details his confession. He’s a former lawyer who has fallen from grace (hence the title) and now spends all of his time hanging out in a bar in Amsterdam.
As he speaks, he peels back the layers of his character to reveal his most secretive and base motivations. No, he’s not a virtuous person, not really, as his good reputation was kept up out of vanity. What he really wanted the entire time was to be admired– to be on a pedestal above everyone else. He wanted to dominate. He wanted to be viewed as the best, but the hypocrisy was too much, and he became aware of the everpresent judgement of the world.
As much consideration as he took to his appearance, he nevertheless realized that he would never escape being judged in the eyes of others. And he realizes that in order to still have the upper hand, you must judge yourself first.
No one is innocent, but everyone is a judge. And he invites you, the reader to judge him– and to judge yourself.
There’s a lot to unpack in this book: the inevitable human need for exceptionalism and self-absolution, the desire for superiority, performative virtue, some ideal to motivate and to devote yourself to throughout the nebulousness of life. I think I will be contemplating it for some time.
“Your success and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them. But to be happy it is essential not to be too concerned with others. Consequently, there is no escape. Happy and judged, or absolved and wretched.”
Have you read The Fall by Albert Camus? If so, what did you think of it? Feel free to leave a comment!
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“To be happy it is essential not to be too concerned with others.” The truth of this may vary from person to person (introvert/extrovert, empathy to happiness ratio, etc.), but it’s easier for me to see its universality in the Eastern religions variant, where the paradox comes in the form of detachment and compassion. “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion; if you want to be happy, practice compassion,” says the Dalai Lama. But true compassion is only possible with detachment. So long as you’re invested in the material world, vesting your happiness in objective pleasures and emotional feedback from other human beings, you can’t get to that place of unconditional compassion.
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That’s a really interesting thought
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Your review is so intriguing! I read The Stranger, but I never looked deeper into Camus’s other works. The themes you’ve described in this book sound fascinating, so I’ll definitely be adding this to my TBR.
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Yay! I hope you like it!
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