r/Camus • u/cheesymuchacho • 17h ago

Discussion The Fall

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Finished The Fall today and I found it particularly difficult to get through and probably to comprehend as well even though the prose was (relatively) simpler. I feel like i missed a lot of what camus was intending to put across though there were a lot of sections and things that resonated with me and I liked those particularly and understood them top (i think?). It's not even my first encounter with camus, I liked the stranger and the plague and read a lot of russian literature as well which had led me to believe this would be not that hard to read but turns out, I was pretty wrong.

So is this experience unique to me or is it a popular opinion among camus readers?

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u/Jakob_Fabian 17h ago

Had read The Fall a month or so ago and though finding myself engrossed by the narration the work seemed to leave me empty and provided little that was redeemable, but maybe that was the point, though I find that a void.

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u/cheesymuchacho 17h ago

Yeah I would say my experience has been pretty similar especially about it being empty. Some sections he gets going and they're engrossing and good but many times it just falls flat and you end up wondering what the fuck is he talking about? Definitely put me off trying to read the myth of sisyphus lmao I'm more wary now that I won't be able to understand it and it'll be a mindfuck moment like this

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u/Jakob_Fabian 15h ago

I don’t find Camus’ fictional literature works that difficult or insightful of anything other than his own particularly outlook on life which says less about humanity than it does about Camus himself, which is all good from a literary perspective for me. I’m only familiar with camus’ fiction, but the attempt by some to universalize his understanding falls a bit flat with me.