Exile and the Kingdom

As a point of reference, I have read most of Camus's major works. The present collection is an interesting mixture of six short stories. The stories are more varied than his novels which tend to reflect his philosophy of the absurd. I thought the present stories were among his best works. The story The Guest is outstanding, two or three of the stories are excellent, and the others are good or are at least interesting. Albert Camus (1913 - 1960) was a French writer and philosopher. He is often associated with existentialism, but Camus rejected any ideological classification. Camus was a young recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature when he became the first African-born writer to receive the award in 1957. He died in a car crash only three years after receiving the award. He was a social activist and Communist, and fought with the French resistance in WWII. Later he rejected Communism. The present book was copyrighted in 1957. The present novel contains six works: - The Adulterous Woman - The Renegade - The Silent Men - The Guest - The Artist at Work, and - The Growing Stone. I had previously read The Guest in other collections of short stories. It is one of his best short works and it it is about an Arab prisoner who had murdered a family member and who is now transferred to a schoolmaster, Daru, at an isolated outpost in the desert of North Africa. Daru is supposed to deliver the prisoner to a jail the next day. The Silent Men are a group of workers who have returned to work at a barrel factory after a strike, and who are not interested in talking to the boss who stopped the strike. The Artist at Work is about the rise and fall of a young painter. The Growing Stone is about a civil engineer on an assignment in the coastal jungles of South America, while the remaining two are set in desert towns of North Africa, and are the most eclectic and imaginative stories in the group. The stories are all interesting and I enjoyed the reads. The Stranger and perhaps The Fall remain as his best works and they are must reads, followed by The Plague. Those works include his use of irony and philosophical views. Also, Camus has written some good drama and non-fiction. The present work shows the broader range of his writing skills and is an entertaining set of stories.

To understand the spiritual struggle demonstrated in "The Renegade" we must separate the narrator from the narration -- because the narrator is mad, driven so through torture dealt by the very natives he hoped to convert. This is important because the narrator wished to honor God. He believed the best way to witness was to endure suffering. But he fails miserably; his torture is unbearable. Ultimately, the narrator concludes, "I had been misled, truth is square, heavy, thick, it does not admit distinctions, good is an idle dream, an intention constantly postponed and pursued with exhausting effort, a limit never reached, its reign is impossible" (59). The moral of the narration seems to be that no excuse justifies the narrator's suffering. If God himself is unfair, the world makes no ultimate sense. And this cannot be because it violates the promise made in Genesis. Silence, symbolized by the narrator's severed tongue, seems an appropriate response to this God. "The Renegade" suggest that we are not made in God's image, but rather that we are instead fashioned after Tantalus: the thing we most desire dances forever before our eyes, yet forever beyond our grasp.

I believe that this book should be read along with the Fall, for as Camus intended, the two works lend insight into each other. I don't believe it's quite accurate to boil these stroies down into existential philosophy and social crticism. There is something to Camus' work which speaks to more hidden aspirations. This is an incredible collection of stories, who's diversity defies Hemingway. However, unlike the other reviews, I don't believe that the stories are about exile in such a simple way. Many of the charcters seem to be liberated at the end of their stories...or, imprisoned. Either way, the exile involved here, I think, may have more to do with the kingdom of God. Take that as you will. This is a strong piece of literature.

A riveting and utterly haunting book, this anthology of Camus's short stories is not only my favorite of all his works, but it is one of the best books I have ever read.The underlying theme in each of his stories is exile, whether it be spiritual, physical, or mental. From the tale of the school teacher put in care of an Arab prisoner to the missionary who finds himself worshipping a cruel graven image, each tale pits man in a pivotal moment in time which defines his future. This is at the very heart of existentialism, a predominant literary vehicle of contemporary authors.The tales are simple in style, yet vividly written and rich in detail. You'll find youself shocked by the tragic irony in each of the characters, and haunted by the stories for years to come.

I find "Exile and the Kingdom" to be Camus' best book, and here's why. Here, towards the end of his life, he finally seemed to be sifting his philosophies from his characters; making real people turn up in unrealistic situations, hence making a point about either that character or society. What results is very strong fiction, be it the adultress in the desert, the teacher who cannot ignore a revolution, the artist locked up in his loft trying to find the perfect idea, or the islanders who must carry a stone to show their faith. Camus is blunt about what he feels are our shortcomings; but he lets his characters make their mistakes as people. Thus, years later, you find yourself still pondering these stories and seeing them reflected in the world around you. Profound, and uplifting in their own downbeat way. Considering that the novel he never finished, the recently published _The First Man_ is autobiography, it seems Camus felt he had said what he came to say about existentialism and society