The Plague - Albert Camus

Theae:
Absolutly loved this book. I even tried to start a thread about the priest a while back, but as no one seemed to have read the book ist didn't take off.

http://able2know.org/topic/147174-1

Great book review. I'm looking forward to more.

Wow....I have nor read that book for so long. I recall loving it when I did.

What caused you to read it? An interest in Camus' philosophy, or in the book as literature?

Both, probably, I would guess?

I've always understood it to be a parody of the Nazi occupation.

I am a philosophy major, and when I was at a glorified community college, the other philosophy major was obsessed with Camus. I have read The Rebel and The Stranger and have generally like Camus' thinking. For a while, I was obsessed with existential era philosophy and it seems that Camus and Ortega--and even Nietzsche to an extent--has stuck with me for the long haul.

I didn't even think of that as I was reading it, but it makes sense now that I think about it. Most people think about Nazi occupation in France or Poland or somewhere closer to the main battle lines. But Camus was from Algeria and used it as a setting which had a much more passive Nazi presence, although random and fierce, came and went for no real apparent reason.

NB
In 1941, and at other times during WW2, Camus was resident in mainland France, and working for the resistance.

That does make it much more contextual

I have reconsidered fresco's view after reading the book recently;spurred by Thea's review.
Camus had joined and then quit the Communist party while in Algeria. In post-war France he was dismayed by the imprisonments and executions of collaborators and the show trials conducted by Russian controlled Eastern block countries.
One of his characters,Tarrou says: "I have decided to reject everything that, directly or indirectly, makes people die or justifies others in making them die."
I think Camus was wrestling with his conscience and getting ready to break with his former comrades in the French Left.