Stephen Tyler

Ishiguro's complete habitation of the protagonist Mr. Stevens is masterful, the existential themes and the mechanisms of delivering them are brilliant. I just found Mr. Stevens rather boring. I might call this a very good novel that I didn't enjoy very much.

I expected to love this novel, and perhaps expectations are to blame. It is amazing on a sentence level. The prose is exquisite and superbly creative with language – quite like Cormac McCarthy at times in its stripping away of the physical world in exploration of what lies beneath. In spite of this stripping away of the physical world, Robinson still creates a solid sense of place; her fictional town of Fingerbone and its lake were fully crafted and central to all that happens in the book. But unfortunately the story never goes anywhere. The cast is slim, and the few characters who move at all could be said to drift more than they arc.

Given her significant power with language, I'm sure I'll read Robinson again, whether Gilead or some of her well-regarded non-fiction.

I don't know what to do with The Stranger.

If The Stranger is Camus' exploration of the absurdity of existence through a sociopathic neurodivergent protagonist whose idiosyncracies represent the strengths and weaknesses of nihilistic worldviews, then this is a five star novel, worthy of its place in the canon.

If The Stranger is Camus' exploration of the absurdity of existence through a brave young protagonist whose disinclination to follow social norms is employed as a referendum against such passe conventions, and whose enslavement to his personal appetites is portrayed as an elevated consciousness, than I say this novel can drift in the way of all nihilistic thought: into circular, self defeating irrelevance.

The writing I enjoyed. The wrestling with authorial intent I enjoyed. The protagonist, Meursault, I did not enjoy in the least, and still am not sure whether or not that was Camus' intent.

It's short and sharply written – read and decide for yourself!

Listened on audio. Whoa. I definitely need a physical copy. Absolutely bursting with provocative thought.

Come for the themes of isolation and desperation, stay for the multiple POV masterclass.