A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning

by Robert Zaretsky

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Albert Camus declared that a writer's duty is twofold: "the refusal to lie about what one knows and the resistance against oppression." These twin obsessions help explain something of Camus' remarkable character, which is the overarching subject of this sympathetic and lively book. Through an exploration of themes that preoccupied Camus--absurdity, silence, revolt, fidelity, and moderation--Robert Zaretsky portrays a moralist who refused to be fooled by the nobler names we assign to our actions, and who pushed himself, and those about him, to challenge the status quo.

Though we do not face the same dangers that threatened Europe when Camus wrote The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger, we confront other alarms. Herein lies Camus' abiding significance. Reading his work, we become more thoughtful observers of our own lives. For Camus, rebellion is an eternal human condition, a timeless struggle against injustice that makes life worth living. But rebellion is also bounded by self-imposed constraints--it is a noble if impossible ideal. Such a contradiction suggests that if there is no reason for hope, there is also no occasion for despair--a sentiment perhaps better suited for the ancient tragedians than modern political theorists but one whose wisdom abides. Yet we must not venerate suffering, Camus cautions: the world's beauty demands our attention no less than life's train of injustices. That recognition permits him to declare: "It was the middle of winter, I finally realized that, within me, summer was inextinguishable."

Genres: Philosophy, Biography, Nonfiction, History, France, Biography Memoir, Literary Criticism

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2013

About the author

Robert Zaretsky is a literary biographer and historian of France. He is Professor of Humanities at the Honors College, University of Houston, and the author of many books, including A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning and Boswell’s Enlightenment. Zaretsky is the history editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, a regular columnist for The Forward, and a frequent contributor to The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Foreign Policy.

Reviews

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب زندگی‌ای که ارزش زیستن دارد: آلبر کامو و تمنای معنا نوشته رابرت زارتسکی، به بررسی ابعاد مختلف اندیشه‌های آلبر کامو، فیلسوف و نویسنده‌ی مشهور فرانسوی، می‌پردازد. این کتاب با نگاهی به آثار کامو و مفاهیمی چون پوچی، عصیان و امید، تلاش می‌کند تا به پرسش‌های بنیادینی درباره زندگی، معنا و ارزش‌های انسانی از نگاه کامو پاسخ دهد. زارتسکی هم چنین به بررسی ارتباط بین فلسفه کامو و تجربیات شخصی او، از جمله جنگ جهانی دوم ، جنگ الجزایر و مرگ مادر، پرداخته و در پایان کتاب اندیشه‌های کامو با سایر فیلسوفان وجودگرا به ویژه سارتر و تاثیر کامو بر ادبیات و فرهنگ معاصر را شرح داده .
سه رکن اصلی فلسفه آلبر کامو، ابسورد، میانه‌روی و عصیان هستند. با این حال، نویسنده با افزودن دو فصل به نام‌های سکوت و پایبندی ، ابعاد تازه‌ای از اندیشه‌های کامو را پیش روی مخاطب قرار داده است.
سکوت، در آثار کامو، فراتر از نبود صدا، نمادی از مقاومت در برابر بی‌معنایی و ظلم حاکم بر جهان است. کامو از مفهوم سکوت به عنوان ابزاری برای اعتراض و حفظ عزت نفس در برابر قدرت‌های سرکوبگر استفاده می‌کند.
پایبندی نیز در فلسفه کامو به عنوان یک ارزش اخلاقی مطرح می‌شود. این مفهوم به معنای وفاداری به ارزش‌ها و اصول شخصی است، حتی در شرایط دشوار. کامو معتقد است که پایبندی به اصول اخلاقی، به انسان کمک می‌کند تا در مواجهه با پوچی و بی‌معنایی، هویت خود را حفظ کند.
اصل و اساس فلسفه کامو را باید مفهوم بنیادین ابزورد یا پوچی ( مترجم ترجیح داده به جای واژه پوچی از ابزورد استفاده کند ) دانست . از نگاه کامو انسان، به طور ذاتی، در جستجوی معنایی برای زندگی است و تلاش می‌کند تا در هر گوشه‌ای از جهان، از کوچک‌ترین اتفاقات تا بزرگ‌ترین پرسش‌ها، معنایی بیابد. اما کامو معتقد است که این جستجو در مواجهه با بی‌معنایی ذاتی جهان، با شکست مواجه می‌شود.
با این حال، کامو این پوچی را نه یک تراژدی، بلکه یک واقعیت اجتناب‌ناپذیر می‌داند. به باور او، پذیرش این حقیقت که زندگی ذاتاً بی‌معناست، اولین گام برای رسیدن به آزادی حقیقی و زندگی آگاهانه است. کامو معتقد است که درک پوچی، نه تنها انسان را ناامید نمی‌کند، بلکه او را قادر می‌سازد تا از زندگی به طور کامل لذت ببرد و به آن معنا ببخشد.
موضع کامو در جنگ الجزائر
نویسنده بخشی از کتاب را هم به کامو و نظریات او درباره جنگ الجزائر اختصاص داده ، آلبر کامو به‌عنوان نویسنده و فیلسوفی که در الجزایر تحت استعمار فرانسه متولد شد، موضعی پیچیده درباره جنگ الجزائر داشت. او به شدت با خشونت و تروریسمی که جبهه آزادی‌بخش ملی الجزایر در طول این جنگ مرتکب می‌شد، مخالف بود. کامو بر این باور بود که خشونت نمی‌تواند راه‌حل مناسبی برای دستیابی به آزادی و استقلال باشد و از این‌رو، با تبعات انسانی و اجتماعی ناشی از خشونت بر ضد استعمارگران و هم چنین خشونت سخت استعمارگران فرانسوی با الجزایری ها مخالف بود.
کامو مخالف استقلال الجزائر و اخراج الجزایری‌های فرانسوی‌تبار بود، و به دلیل این مواضع، تحت انتقادهای شدیدی از هر دو طرف مناقشه قرار گرفت. او از طرفی خواهان حفظ فرهنگ‌های مختلف در الجزائر و از طرف دیگر مخالف جنگ و خشونت بود و در تلاش بود تا با راه‌حل‌های دیپلماتیک و گفتگو به تحقق حقوق انسانی دست یابد.
به‌طور کلی، موضع کامو در جنگ الجزائر نشان‌دهنده ترکیب پیچیده‌ای از تعهد به حقوق بشر و پرهیز از خشونت بود، جایی که او سعی داشت به‌جای تأیید یکی از طرفین، صدای عقل و انسانیت باشد. اما موضع میانه‌ او باعث شد تا هم از سوی فرانسوی‌ها و هم از سوی الجزایری‌ها مورد انتقاد قرار بگیرد .
زندگی‌ای که ارزش زیستن دارد ، دعوتی ایست به تفکر و تامل درباره اندیشه های کامو تا شاید خواننده این گونه معنای زندگی از نگاه کامو را درک کند . کتاب زارتسکی را می توان کتاب مناسبی برای آشنایی مقدماتی با کامو و فلسفه او دانست .

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Albert Camus was the first "existentialist" (a label he refused) I read in high school. And for many years that's what he remained to me – the author of The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, etc. It wasn't until I read Tony Judt's Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956 and The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century that I gained an appreciation for the troubled life and raw courage of the man himself. Robert Zaretsky's book is in the same company, less polemical, more an extended meditation on Camus and his contradictions.

I read its final chapter – "Revolt" – on the same afternoon that I finished Jean Lartéguy's The Centurions and it was a sobering contrast. In the last decade of his life Camus, born in Algeria to a poor Pied-Noir family, found himself trapped between the Parisian left, the French right and the Algerian independence movement. All sides behaved badly, although each claimed moral superiority. Camus refused to take sides, alienating everyone. "Violence is at one and the same time unavoidable and unjustifiable." The most damaging attacks came from Sartre, his erstwhile ally. By 1956 he'd stopped speaking publicly on the matter, except for a scandalous response to a reporter in Stockholm, where he received the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.

People are now planting bombs in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be on one of those tramways. If that is justice, then I prefer my mother.

Taken out of context, the comment was incendiary. Sartre had no qualms siding with the bombers. In his forward to Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, he intoned:

In the first days of the revolt you must kill; to shoot down a European is to kill two birds with one stone, to destroy an oppressor and the man he oppresses at the same time: there remains a dead man and a free man; the survivor, for the first time, feels a national soil under his foot.

Sartre, a genius born to privilege, could always upstage Camus, but for all his foibles and insecurities, Camus is both nobler and more convincing. Zaretsky notes the irony.

Too many writers – myself included – remind others of the reasons to admire Camus. Were he alive today, Flaubert might add to his Dictionary of Received Ideas: "Camus: a good man in dark times."

I'll risk the cliché.

I also appreciated Zaretsky's emphasis on Camus the lover of beauty, specifically the sun and sea of Algiers.

"Yes, there is beauty and there are the humiliated. Whatever the difficulties the enterprise may present, I would never like to be unfaithful either to one or the other."

In a superb passage, Zaretsky compares Camus to George Orwell.

the many resemblances between the two men are riveting. Both were committed antifascists, but also committed antitotalitarians; both risked their lives in the struggle against fascism (Orwell in Spain, Camus in occupied France); both were journalists and essayists as well as novelists; both men, though despised by many on the European Left, never surrendered their identification with the values of democratic socialism; both men, equally hostile to the imperial policies of their countries, had also lived in the colonies and refused to simplify their complex reality. Of course, both men were also inveterate smokers, tubercular, dead at the age of forty-six, and since hailed, unfortunately, as secular saints.

The photo he prefers to remember Camus by is the one with his friend Michel Gallimard.

[Laura Leaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deepened my appreciation for all things Camus. Zaretsky writes lucidly, synthesizing information about Albert Camus and his philosophy from interviews, journals, essays, books, and letters. The book is slim, a marvel of precision and understanding.

For me, there is no use in summarizing its main points as any bulleted review by me would not offer the depth and complexity of Zaretsky's research about Camus, the pied-noir whose intellectual heroism and honesty is utterly stirring. It is wise to remember that he was writing incendiary anti-war articles and essays during the occupation of France in World War II - and it is also worth remembering his efforts on behalf of the tortured Arabs and Berbers of Algeria in a time when the "French people in Algeria" thought of the "Arabs as a shapeless mass without interests." Camus writes that the French must stop seeing "the Arabs of Algeria as a bloc, as a nation of murderers. The great majority of them, subjected to every possible ill, have known a kind of distress they alone can express." God, not much has changed.

If anything, A Life Worth Living proves the significance of Camus to the twenty-first century. I am reminded of Reinhold Niebuhr's book title, Moral Man & Immoral Society. To my mind, Albert Camus is that very rare speciman: a moral man.

The ending of the book is beautiful, a prayer for Camus who believed, not in God, but in beauty and justice.

[Jonfaith · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is easier to reflect on what I did learn in this slim volume. 1) Camus maintained a deep love for Stendhal and Montaigne. The concluding pages of The Strange reflect the influence on Sorel's resignation at the end of The Scarlet and the Black. 2) Camus was ready to beat Merleau-Ponty's ass after the philosopher published his Humanism and Terror.

Okay, that's about it.

Zaretsky begins the book examining how the ever opportunistic Nicholas Sarkozy used two events in an attempt to reappropriate the legacy of Camus. Later in the book, the case of Camus as pan-Mediterranean is explored in light of the Arab Spring. The arguments afforded in both situations appear half-hearted, as is most of the book. Camus' notebooks are mined for his thoughts on various themes: Absurdity, Silence, Measure, Fidelity and Revolt. The word jejune becomes handy when considering this book. Consider yourself warned.

[Philippe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am surprised to note that my assessment of this book diverges so markedly from fellow GR reviewers' opinion. I experienced this biographic narrative as rather stale and uninvolving. It didn't bring me closer to the man that Albert Camus was. To the contrary. The author deplores that Camus has been turned into a secular saint but his book seems to reinforce that bloodless image. Philosophically the account is underpowered and biographically Zaretsky keeps on revisiting a few trite motto themes. The book's suggestive outline hinges on five key themes - absurdity, silence, measure, fidelity, revolt - but on closer inspection the associated sections' content relates only tenuously to these headings. Finally, the book has not been very well written with numerous sentences going nowhere and translated quotes from Camus' work striking me as stilted and unidiomatic. Surprisingly, the book hasn't been carefully edited either, with inaccuracies in French toponyms as just one glaring example of editorial oversight (for instance, the French city of Lyon is repeatedly referred to as 'Lyons'). However, an unexpected bonus of reading this book was my acquaintance with the work and outsized personality of Alexandre Grothendieck, one of the most gifted mathematicians of the twentieth century. He is not mentioned in Zaretsky's book but he came into focus as a result of some cursory reading of other sources related to Camus' wartime sojourn in Vichy France.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zaretsky does a masterful job of discussing Camus through the lens of five themes that occupied the philosopher throughout his life: absurdity, silence, measure, fidelity, and revolt. Zarestsky provides valuable context from Camus' live and experiences that help frame the philosopher's moral stance pertaining to these five themes. Camus is too easily labelled as "simply" an existentialist philosopher of the absurd; in Zarestsky's discussion of the tensions that Camus experienced with contemporary philosophers of existentialism, nihilism, absolutism, and absurdity, he highlights how Camus' unwavering moral stance set him apart from these contemporaries. Camus' experience as an Algerian pied-noir informed a great deal of his moral stances, particularly with respect to the treatment of Arab and Berber Algerians, for whose rights he fought for most of his life. Although Camus was very much a man of his time, much of what he proposed continues to have relevance for us today.

[Parmida · Rating 5 out of 5]

اگر جایی برای امید نیست دست کم به نومیدی تن ندهیم.

«عصیان به زندگی ارزش می بخشد. در عوض خودکشی، زندگی و جهانی را که خالی از اهمیت و معناست به رسمیت می شناسد. یا حتی از آن دفاع میکند.»


توضیحات:
کتاب زندگی ای که ارزش زیستن دارد، اثر رابرت زارتسکی، نگاهی ست خلاصه و کوتاه و موضوع محور به آثار آلبر کامو. که در ۵ فصل با عناوین :
۱. ابسورد (چرا که نه، تا وقتی صحبت درباره ی کامو باشه قطعا فصلی باید این موضوع رو اختصاصا در آثارش بررسی کنه.)
۲. سکوت (اهمیت کی و کجا ساکت بودن و تا حدی توجیهِ یکسری پیچ و خم های تاریخی و سیاسی ای که کامو تصمیم گرفت در طی شون سکوت اختیار کنه.)
۳. میانه روی
۴. پایبندی (لزوم فراموش نکردن و از یاد نبردن اتفاقات افتاده و به عبارتی فراموش نکردن و بی ارزش نکردن اتفاقات سخت و مهم با از یاد بردن آنها)
۵. عصیان (Again, we are talking about Camus, aren't we?)

نظر شخصی :
قبلا از کامو خوندم ولی «کتابی» درباره ی کامو، نه.
و تصمیم هم دارم بیشتر بخونم ولی از اونجایی که این کتاب اولین کتاب درباره ی کامویی بود که میخوندم برام کمک کننده بود تا افکارش، اهدافش و راهش برام روشن تر شه. چون کتاب دیگه‌ای درباره ی این نویسنده و فیلسوف و متفکر، نخوندم نمیتونم بگم این بهترینشونه پس به توضیح مترجم محترم اکتفا میکنم.
«در اکثر کتاب هایی که درباره ی کامو نوشته شده اند سه موضوع ثابت وجود دارد: عصیان، میانه روی و پوچی. سه موضوع اصلی کهدراین کتاب هم به بحث گذاشته شده، چه شالوده اصلی تفکرات کامو بر همین ها استوار است. اما این کتاب به دو موضوع مهم دیگر هم می پردازد: «سکوت» و «پایبندی».

درباره ی ترجمه و مترجم:
مترجم این کتاب، جناب آقای محمدرضا عشوری تهیه کننده و گوینده ی پادکست اپیتومی بوکس هستند. پادکستی درباره ی کتاب که با علاقه و وسواس و دید تخصصی ایشان تهیه می شود. این پادکست از مهم ترین عوامل نجات دهنده من از بار روانی دوران کرونا بود و همیشه از این بابت ممنون ایشان هستم.
علاوه براین، ایشان دو اپیزود رو به صورت تخصصی به بررسی و توضیح آثار و شخصیت کامو و ترتیب درست خواندن آثار کامو اختصاص دادند و منابع بسیاری را برای تهیه ی این دو اپیزود مطالعه کردند. این دو اپیزود، به نظر من، یکی از بهترین خلاصه هایی ست که ممکن است درباره ی کامو، آثارش، و چگونه خواندنش بتوانید پیدا کنید.
بنابراین شاید کسی بهتر از آقای عشوری نمی توانست این کتاب را ترجمه کند. کسی که شاید بیراه نباشد اگر بگوییم نه ۱۰۰ در ۱۰۰ ولی قریب به ۸۷ درصد کتاب های نوشته شده درباره ی کامو رو خوانده و کاملا اشراف دارد و دارای تسلط کافی روی موضوع ترجمه شده است.
این موضوع کتاب را به یکی از بهترین کتاب های ترجمه شده تبدیل میکند. حتی با وجود اینکه اولین کتاب ترجمه شده توسط ایشان است.
امیدوارم اکثر مترجم ها از همین تسلط روی موضوع و متن برخورددار باشند و بیشتر از آن امیدوارم جناب عشوری ما رو از ترجمه های خوب و ماهرانه شون بی نصیب نذارند و اقلا در همین زمینه، کتاب های دیگری رو هم به فارسی ترجمه کنند.

"کمتر از یکسال پس از به روی صحنه بردن نمایشنامه، کامو با شور انقلابی بیشتری به سراغ پرومته رفت: «روح انقلاب تماما در اعتراض انسان به سرنوشت بشری نهفته است. انقلاب علی‌رغم شکل‌های متفاوتی که به خود می‌گیرد، یگانه موضوع ابدی هنر و مذهب است. انقلاب همواره علیه خدایان صورت می‌گیرد.
از انقلاب پرومته بگیر تا امروز.»"

کامو - سال ۱۹۵۵ - سخنرانی درباره ی آینده ی تراژدی
«نیروهایی که در تراژدی در تقابل باهم قرار میگیرند، به یک اندازه مشروع و به یک اندازه موجه اند.»
گرومته هم بر حق است و هم نیست. زئوس نیز که بی رحمانه به او ظلم میکند، حق دارد.
ملودرام را میتوان به این صورت خلاصه کرد:«تنها یک طرف برحق است.» اما فرمول یک تراژدی بی نقص این طور خواهد بود :«همه موجه اند اما هیچ کس برحق نیست.»
تراژدی به ما می آموزد که :«نوعی آگاهی وجود دارد که فقط با رنج کشیدن به دست می آید، چرا که در این مواقع انسان با رنج کشیدن به شناخت درستی از نحوه زندگی دست میابد.»

کامو در جستار عروسی در تیپاسیا سال ۱۹۳۶:
«ما به استقبال عشق و هوس میرویم. ما نه طالب در سیم و نه خواهان فلسفه تلخی که خواهان بزرگی است. همه چیز اینجا بیهوده به نظر میرسد‍‍‍‍‍‍، به جز آفتاب، بوسه هایمان و بوی وحشی زمین... من اینجا نظم و اعتدال را به دیگران می سپارم.»

لینک ها :
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[Grace Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

You are only likely to feel that the world is sickeningly pointless, as opposed to plain old pointless, if you had inflated expectations of it in the first place. (49)

The misery and greatness of this world: it offers no truths, but only objects for love. Absurdity is king, but love saves us from it. (58)

Rather than the consequence of human expectations, the absence we encounter when our ears strain, but fail to hear something, it is instead a positive force, one far older than humankind, perhaps older than the world itself. (65)

Silence at such moments is not willed, but is instead visceral. It reminds us that silence preceded language and presupposes an older world in which language did not yet filter out our response to it... Today we tend to regard silence as the interruption of noise, but once we recover from the effects pf sound, we realize that silence's primordial function is to provide a kind of basso continuo to the drama of our lives. (81)

-the intuitive conviction that humankind, if it wishes to preserve this status, must obey certain limits on its freedom, all the while acknowledging the humanity of one's fellow men and women- endured his entire life. It was an ethics based on faithfulness to our fundamental duties and faithfulness to our world. (119)

Fidelity to one's political party at the cost of loyalty to one's humanity is not fidelity, but most often betrayal. (119)

Resentment, after all, is fidelity to an unworthy emotion: hatred or anger. (122)

When asked whether faithfulness can justify a life, Camus replied it could and must- if the faithfulness served life and happiness, not death and servitude. "Undoubtedly, one of the last questions a man can ask about the value of his life is 'Have I been faithful?' But this question means nothing if it does not first of all mean 'Have I done nothing to degrade my life or another's?'" (123)

The man who enjoys his coffee while reading that justice has been done would spit it out at the last detail. (137)

To save the life of an individual "in a wold where the humanity of so may others is lost to absurdity and misery... amounts to saving oneself. (145)

Violence pulsed through the veins of all societies. But there are different blood types: the communist variety was vastly preferable to the capitalist one. In short, while it contained toxics, the blood of communism would eventually pulse through a revitalized body politic, while the blood of capitalism was itself a toxin that condemned the body to death- or, more accurately, to meaningless. (153)

"Violence is at one and the same time unavoidable and unjustifiable." As a result, our duty is to quarantine violence, to make its use exceptional, and to recall, as vividly and clearly as possible what it does to both those who use it and those against whom it is used." (156)

Camus was disturbed by the willed innocence of Americans. Meeting a group of students at Vassar- "What they do here for young people is worth remembering" -Camus observed that they suffered from a kind of misplaced nostalgia. In this country where everything is done to prove that life isn't tragic, they feel something is missing. (162)

With every step, our discomfort reminds us we have taken a step. Surely, Camus seems to say, a revolutionary committed to killing as a means for a great and good end must hobble, intellectually and ethically, before and after the act. To kill easily and thoughtlessly- to lack, like Pucheu, the moral imagination to understand what happens when you order the deaths of others- is precisely what Camus most feared.(175)

The rebel sees to impose a limit on his own self. Rebellion is an act of defense, not offense; it is equipoise, not a mad charge against an opponent. (177)

"I have never been able to renounce the light," he confessed to the audience, "the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up." (188)

"Yes, there is beauty and there are the humiliated. Whatever the difficulties the enterprise may present, I would never like to be unfaithful either to one or the other." Yes, injustice exists, but so too does the sun- the source of measure. Indeed, Camus "measured" his luck, realizing at last that in the worst years of our madness the memory of that sky had never left me. This was what in the end had kept me from despairing... In the middle of winter, I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer. (189)

Camus observed that the absurdity might ambush us on a street corner or a sun-blasted beach. But so, too, do beauty and the happiness that attends it. All too often, we know we are happy only when we no longer are. (191)

Measure, in a word. For Camus, true nobility lies in lucid acceptance of the world, its beauties and its limits, its joys and its demands, its inhabitants and our common lot. (193)

Filled with wonder, or filled with love, we forget ourselves- a precondition for making room for others. (194)

Everything here leaves me intact, I surrender nothing of myself, and don no mask: learning patiently and arduously how to live is enough for me. (195)

[SARAH · Rating 5 out of 5]

"اما امروز ما زنده ایم:یک لحظه تامل به ما یاد آوری میکند که در ان زمان در سمت درست بودن چقدر دشوار بود و چقدر دشوار است که امروز در سمت درستی باشیم،با کامو باشیم یا با اطمینان علیه کامو..."
"از نظر کامو اصالت حقیقی در پذیرش صریح جهان،زیبایی ها و محدودیت های آن،لذت ها و نیازهای آن،ساکنین آن و اشتراکاتمان نهفته است."
17 ساله بودم،تازه مهم ترین امتحان زندگی ام را پشت سر گذاشته بودم،با سماجتی توضیح ناپذیر،فلسفه تلخی را پذیرفته بودم،هیچ چیز تغییر نخواهد کرد،من تغییر نخواهم کرد،و همه مصیبت های زندگی ام،همه آدم ها،اتفاقات ناخوشایند تغییر نخواهند کرد؛پس فردایی نیست .هیچ چیز بهتر نخواهد شد اگر رو به وخامت نرود!!!من که تا ان روز از مدرسه ،جامعه ایدولوگ زده ی تاریکم تا مغز استخوان الوده به انواع ایدولوژی ها و باور هایی بودم که نه در خدمت زندگی ،رفاه ،یا لذت،بلکه در خدمت تامین رفاه و جیب عده ای بودند که.... منی که در 17 سالگی مرده بودم (سرنوشت تلخ خیلی از دختران و بعضی پسران دهه خونبار 60؛یک بار دست به انتحاری ناموفق زده بودم،و زندگی چنان برایم تهی از معنی بود و بیگانه با لذت های زندگی بودم که تمام فکر و ذهنم مترصد دست یابی به فرصتی دوباره برای استقبال از مرگ شده بود!!! 17 سالگی چنین تلخ بود.چنین تیره،یادم می اید ان روزها ، مجله سروش نوجوان بخشی داشت که اتوسا صالحی به معرفی اثار برجسته جهان می پرداخت،100 اثری که قبل مرگ باید بخوانی!!!بیگانه با ترجمه جلال ال احمد هم جز ان بود...عضو کتابخانه خصوصی شده بودم تا ،روزهای بعد کنکور تا اعلام رتبه ذهنم را مشغول کنم،ان روز در اوج تباهی ذهن افسرده بیمارم،بیگانه را از قفسه برداشتم و.... یادم هست از ساعت 11 شب تا سه نیمه شب؛ در مرداد داغ و تفدیده شمال چطور واژه های کامو مر ا شفا داد.. یادم هست چطور زدوده شدم از ایمان،از تمام ان نهلیسمی که سرتا پایم را پوشانده بودم،از ان ایدولوژی های مضحک؛ چطور مورسو و نریشن ذهنی اش مرا سم زدایی کرد.... قصه بیگانه و اشنایی ام با نویسنده اش را بارها گفته ام،بارها... هربار که واژه های کامو مرا محسور میکند یادم می اید چرا و چطور عاشق این مرد افتاب سوخته جذاب شدم تا علیرغم تهی بودن زندگی ام از معنا امید را درخودم بازافرینم،امیدی از اعماق ابسورد این جهان خاموش ... فهمیدم که باید برای زندگی باایستم و چرا؟کامو مرا شیدا و عاشق خودش کرد و هنوز، از پس تلخی تمام سال هایی که گذراندم، عاشق او هستم ،در این زمانه تیره،وازه هایش مرا تسکین میدهند،و قلبم را سرشار می کنند طنین واژه های توفنده اش قلبم را میلرزاند و میفهمم من هنوز زنده ام،هنوز انسانم و هنوز ....امیدوار به انسان،زندگی ...
"تصویر کامو که در فصلی از ادم اول گنجانده شده و در ان بازی های کودکی اش در الجزایر را به خاطر می اورد.او و دوستانش در مدرسه و در روزهایی که باد میوزید شاخه های خرما را جمع می کردند و به سمت ایوان مدرسه که مشرف به دشت های بیابانی بود میدویدند و در حالیکه شاخه ها را محکم در دست گرفته بودند به مصاف باد میرفتند.کامو بخاطر می اورد که شاخه ها بلافاصله روی او خم میشدند و او بوی خاک و کاه را به درون می کشید.کامو می نویسد:برنده مسابقه کسی بود که بدون جدا شدن شاخه از دستش،اول از همه به انتهای ایوان برسد،سپس می ایستاد و شاخه خرما را تا جایی که میتوانست بالا نگه میداشت و پیروزمندانه در برابر نیروی خشمگین باد مقاومت می کرد."با این تصویر،من همیشه کامو را خوشحال تصور می کنم.
نویسنده در این اثر به تحلیل دیدگاه کامو در باب عصیان، میانه روی ،پوچی ،سکوت و پایبندی می پردازد... برایم عجیب بود ،کامو ؛نماد اخلاقی ترین نویسنده ای است که می شناسم پایبندی اش به انسانیت در ماجرای کشورش الجزیره،دعوای تاریخی اش با روشنفکر پاریسی سارتر،و اصرارش به اعتدال و حفظ انگاره های انسانی در اشوب زمان ... برایم غریب بود که او چنین رفتاری نسبت به فرانسیس داشته...کامو و فرانسیس همسرش در اپارتمان سردشان با دست هایی یخ زده؛ به دست نویسی و بازنویسی افسانه سیزیف پرداختند .کامو با دست هایی که از شدت سرما تاول زده بود می نوشت و فرانسیس دستکش به دست همراهش بود... چطور او توانست سالها به خاطره فرانسیس در ان اپارتمان یخ زده که با دستکش به سختی انگشتان ش را خم میکرد و می نوشت ،بارها و بارها خیانت کند!!!و کامو به من اموخت انسان موجودی پیچیده است. از بت سازی بپرهیزم،از قضاوت دور باشم و فقط مشاهده گر عمیق و متفکری باقی بمانم ... درس کوچکی نیست حداقل برای ما ایرانی جماعت... ولی راستش من هنوز عاشق این مرد با این پیشانی بلند و پوست افتاب سوخته و چشمان نافذ اش هستم... این کتاب در بازشناسی این نویسنده بزرگ بسیار گام مهمی برداشته مفاهیم بیگانه ،انسان طاغی ،طاعون صالحان ... را به تفضیل بحث کرده .کامو را شفاف تر و انسانی تر تصویر میکند.او بی شک هنوز ندای زمانه ماست ... اخلاق مداری او در اوج اشوب نیاز زمانه ماست... بخوانید لطفا... این اثر حداقل کاری که میکند گشایش دریچه های تفکر است... در ذهن یخ زده و مایوس مان... باشد که باز به افتاب ایمان بیاوریم....

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good, concise look at his thinking, a bit of a go at times when it gets into deep philosophy but nevertheless a very good read. From Amazon: In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Albert Camus declared that a writer's duty is twofold: "the refusal to lie about what one knows and the resistance against oppression." These twin obsessions help explain something of Camus' remarkable character, which is the overarching subject of this sympathetic and lively book. Through an exploration of themes that preoccupied Camus--absurdity, silence, revolt, fidelity, and moderation--Robert Zaretsky portrays a moralist who refused to be fooled by the nobler names we assign to our actions, and who pushed himself, and those about him, to challenge the status quo.



Though we do not face the same dangers that threatened Europe when Camus wrote The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger, we confront other alarms. Herein lies Camus' abiding significance. Reading his work, we become more thoughtful observers of our own lives. For Camus, rebellion is an eternal human condition, a timeless struggle against injustice that makes life worth living. But rebellion is also bounded by self-imposed constraints--it is a noble if impossible ideal. Such a contradiction suggests that if there is no reason for hope, there is also no occasion for despair--a sentiment perhaps better suited for the ancient tragedians than modern political theorists but one whose wisdom abides. Yet we must not venerate suffering, Camus cautions: the world's beauty demands our attention no less than life's train of injustices. That recognition permits him to declare: "It was the middle of winter, I finally realized that, within me, summer was inextinguishable."

[Younes Mowafak · Rating 4 out of 5]

في هذا الكتاب، يتتبع المؤلف حياة الروائي الفرنسي/الجزائري (= المقصود هنا فئة "الاقدام السود") البير كامو ووقعه على نتاجه الادبي والصحفي، مما يسلط الضوء على جوانب مخفية من حياته العائلية، بدءًا من الطفولة الصعبة وبيئة منزله، وصولاً إلى شخصية كامو الشابة المتمردة والأخلاقية في المقام الأول، وخاصةً في نظرته تجاه شعوب بلدان العالم الثالث، وتحديدًا التركيز على المستعمرات الفرنسية في شمال إفريقيا. يجد كامو نفسه مرارًا وتكرارًا محاصرًا بين ثنائيات تعبر عن عبثية الوجود، لكنه يبذل جهودًا مستميتة لتجاوز هذه الثنائيات، ومن هنا تظهر التحديات التي تعتبر حافزًا له للسعي نحو حياة تستحق العيش. أعجبني سرد الكاتب وجودة الترجمة واختيار الطبعة، وقد أبدعت (دار النشر) في اختيارها.

واقول في النهاية أن مما علق في ذهني من هذا الكتاب فكرة كامو المثالية التي تتحدث في إمكانية نقل قيم الثورة الفرنسية (1789م) إلى المستعمرات الفرنسية (على الاقل في جانب المساواة بالمواطنة)، بما في ذلك الجزائر، خاصةً بعد أن واجه واقعًا مريرًا لحياة السكان المحليين من العرب والأمازيغ. بعد سقوط حكومة فيشي (1940-1944م)، حاول كامو التقريب بين تجارب الفرنسيين تحت الاحتلال الألماني وحالة سكان الجزائر تحت الاحتلال الفرنسي، لكنه وجد صعوبة في تحقيق ذلك بشكل فعّال في الصحافة الفرنسية.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very, very insightful work on the life and thought of Albert Camus, which opened my eyes to several things.

First, as far as his life, other than knowing he was a pied-noir, that his father died when he was very young, that he was tuburcular, that he died young himself (but was NOT assassinated by the KGB!) and that he was a notorious womanizer, I knew nothing.

The details of his childhood explain that last element of his adulthood to some degree, perhaps, as well as one long-used intellectual tool of his.

Camus' father was called to the active duty at the start of World War I and killed in battle in 1914. Camus was a year old. At the time his dad was called up, his dad's mom took in Albert, his older brother, and their mom.

Camus' mom was deaf. Per Zaretsky, a few people said she could speak before her husband was killed and only went mute afterward; most say she was a life-long mute. Anyway, she was a mute. So was her uncle by marriage, her mother-in-law's brother, who also was in grandma Camus' house.

Meanwhile, grandma was illiterate. And, after Albert was old enough to read, Zaretsky says she took him to the movie theater in Algiers. In the 1920s, silent movies reigned, of course, and in France and possessions, as well as in the US, they usually had subtitles describing the action.

And, illiterate grandma told Albert to read them to her — ignoring, of course, all the other patrons in the theater telling him to shut up.

So, Camus grew up in a world of silence, either silent people or people calling for silence. And, that's the biographical backstory, I think, to his use of silence on the Algerian civil war.

Related to that, Zaretsky notes Camus was misquoted by Le Monde, deliberately, in his statement on his mother and justice.

He actually said:

"People are now planting bombs in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be on one of those tramways. If THAT is justice, then I prefer my mother."

And, who could argue with that?

I also think this is where Camus' womanizing comes from. A mother deaf and silent to him, a grandmother seemingly using him and manipulating him, and him looking for connection. BUT ... when a woman got too close — and SOUNDED too close — off he went. Zaretsky doesn't make that connection, but it makes sense to me.

Zaretsky DOES divide Camus' literary output into two periods, plus implies the start of a third, before his death. And, he confines Camus' well-known absurdism to just the first period. (He's not alone in this framework, by any means; Wikipedia discusses it.)

That first period is exemplified by The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger. Sisyphus is of course the icon of absurdism.

Part two focuses on rebellion. The Rebel and various essays, most centered on the image of Prometheus, are key. Camus sees both Prometheus AND Zeus as having both innocent and sinful sides in their battle.

While not claiming that Camus' last years, possibly represented by The Fall and the posthumously published The First Man, represent a third phase of Camus' thought, Zaretsky does leave that door open. He notes that the "mistress suicide" scene from The Fall is seen by many as quasi-autobiographical, and The First Man of course is.

That said, the book's not perfect. It could have used a bit more coverage about The Fall (The First Man gets more) and The Plague as well as The Rebel in Camus' second period.

But this is still a very good look at Camus and all in just 200 pages of paperback-sized body copy.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers many key moments and events that influenced Camus's life and thought. It does a good job of capturing the heart of his beliefs and struggles (both internal and external). However, the work is not written chronologically, and I think a more linear approach would have been beneficial, especially to readers who know little of Camus.
3.5 🌟

[T.R. Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Camus is one of the three philosophers I admire the most. The modern world is in desperate need of men like him. I'd settle for someone half as wise.

[Cherop · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed what I learned about Camus' life through the exploration of the themes of this book. It is a pity Albert Camus died so young. It would have been interesting to see the rest of his contribution to intellectual thinking. But for a short time on earth he certainly made an impact.

My favourite quote:

"Everything here leaves me intact, I surrender nothing of myself, and don no mask: learning patiently and arduously how to live is enough for me." ( A line from "Nuptials at Tipasa"

[StevenF · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esp. The final chapter...very moving and for me-- Sublime.

[Satvik Gupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zaretsky paints a vivid portrait of the absurdist, moralist, and humanist facets of Camus’ ideology. The narrative traces instances of Camus fighting and embracing metaphysical and political absurdity, while trying to ascertain the meaning of life, death, suicide, and political murder. Beneath all this philosophical density, we find a Camus who lived and laughed and loved under the warm Algerian sun.

[Tamás Bauman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not a typical biography of a man, it's much more an exploration and the explanations of the ideas of Camus. Zaretsky gives you the understanding of these ideas in the life of Camus and also some background in formations from his life, but I would say this book is much more some kind of love letter to the great humanist Camus rather than a biography of him.
I liked it anyway.

[Lucie Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this concise and insightful exploration of Camus' writings, Robert Zaretsky explores the main theme of Camus' personal and creative ventures- the importance of finding meaning in our lives, despite oppression, injustice and the absurdity of life.

Zaretsky explains that the major issues that confronted Camus were absurdity, hope and despair for mankind, revolt, fidelity and the common search for happiness and meaning in our lives.

He believes that we should read Camus because Camus matters in our age. Reading his work encourages us to examine our own lives and see the injustices in the world and realize that this is where our meaning lies- fighting injustice.

Ultimately though, Camus questions if our lives, filled inevitably as they are with pain and loss, worth our while?

Camus tried to prove that the answer to this question was yes in his writings about Algeria and France. He pushed himself and others to challenge the status quo, and discussed revolt vs. rebellion.

"For Camus, rebellion is an eternal human condition, a timeless struggle against injustice that makes life worth living".

Camus mined Greek myth to make sense of his life and our lives. The ancient Greeks also embraced the duality, the conflict between accepting that life is futile but we still carry hope.

One of my favourite quotes by Camus from this book :

"The misery and greatness of this world: it offers no truths, but only objects for love. Absurdity is king, but love saves us from it."

I liked the concise, lively writing of Zaretsky and I learnt so much.
Zaretsky is very knowledgeable of the life and work of Camus and has a real sympathy and deep understanding of his subject. A very thoughtful and enjoyable read.

"It was the middle of winter; I finally realized that, within me, summer was inextinguishable."

[Parsa Zandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب دوست داشتنی‌ای بود گرچه که هنوز احساس می‌کنم زوایایی وجود دارد که این کتاب به آن نپرداخته. اگر تا حدود خوبی آصار کامو را خوانده باشید، ایم کتاب تحلیل‌های خوبی را ارائه می‌کند هرچند که کامل نیست. این کتاب دومین کتابی بود که از تحلیل آثار کامو خواندم. اولین آن نوشته‌ی ریچارد کمبر بود که واقعا توضیحاتی کم اما متناسب با حجمش می‌داد.
هنوز زوایایی از کامو وجود دارد که نیاز به بررسی دارد. به طور مثال وضعیت روابط عاطفی او که در این کتاب مگر در چند جایی به آن اشاره نشده بود. همچنین احساس می‌کنم جای فروید خالیست که نقد ادبی‌ای روی داستان‌های کامو بنویسد که خواندنش خالی از لطف نبوده و نیست. نمی‌دانم آیا تا به حال کسی از منظر روانکاوانه به آثار کامو پردخته یا نه. پرداختن روانکاوانه نیازمند شناخت دقیق کامو و زندگی اوست.

[World Literature Today]

"This is a wonderfully written and expertly researched companion to Zaretsky’s previous book on Camus. Taken together, Zaretsky has proved to be one of the most honest and thoughtful critics of Albert Camus." - Andrew Martino, Southern New Hampshire University

This book was reviewed in the March 2014 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://bit.ly/1r450Ah

[Nathanial]

Maybe more an inter-related series of essays than a biography. Could've used some sharper editing- some of the passages almost exactly re-iterate earlier points. Five or six chapters that isolate and survey themes in one writer's work, tying them back to excruciatingly detailed segments of his life.

[Mahdi Khalil Nejad · Rating 4 out of 5]

برای آشنایی با افکار کامو
سیر تحول نگرش‌هاش
خوب

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In the middle of winter, I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer"

[Quiet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a slim book (about 200 pages) which is essentially a collection of essays, each of which singularly explores an essential/especial component which defines Camus' writing, with chapters such as "Absurdism" being committed to exploring that topic in generally three ways: biographically, historically, and philosophically/politically. Despite the brevity of the book's size the essays are fulfilling in regards what they're designed to accomplish, and I would argue that this title serves as an excellent introduction for anyone who is seeking an entry point to more scholarly understanding of Camus and his writing. I will also say that even for someone just casually interested or having read/enjoyed much of Camus' works, this book will serve as an enjoyable way to flesh out your understanding of those works, offer an incentive to reread them, and prop you up to be a nosey smart-ass the next time you sit down with friends to argue about "The Stranger" again. Whatever your purpose, so long as you have an appreciation of Camus' works then there is definitely much to take away from this book (and in only a couple hours of reading time too).

There's some misinterpretation of what this book is out there, namely that many have called this work a biography when in fact it only uses biographical information to inform the purpose of its chapters. This is in no way a biography though; there's a lot of biographical information because so much of what Camus wrote related directly to his progress of applied thought throughout his life, but all of that information within this book comes from either other biographies or Camus' various journals and letters that have been preserved and are available elsewhere.

To summarize, much of what this book explores is Camus' philosophic and political ideas he incorporated into his work, some of which were altered, minimized or enhanced as the world around him changed. The Algerian War plays a hefty role in Zaretsky's interpretation of Camus' later works, and this is where much of the biographical information within this book serves. Zaretsky's historical reflections upon Camus and his time alive (WW2, Occupied France, the rise and fall of Communism, and the Algerian War) are kept minimal; they seem to be there mostly to inform/remind the reader of the perhaps unimaginable chaos of that time period, and to offer layers primarily to Camus' essays on the meaning/absence of meaning regarding life.

Very much recommended. I picked this book up as a complete dunce regarding Camus, having been reminded of him recently after having been on a hard Existential study for the past month, and now that I've read this little book from Zaretsky's I'm inspired to read a more comprehensive biography of Camus, read what works of his I've missed, and source more elaborate texts for understanding both absurdism and the Algerian War. So if you're in the mood to take your Camus studies further, then this is an excellent place to begin.

[Mike Clinton · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would have made more sense for me to have read Zartesky's previous book on Camus, Elements of a Life, since, as he explains in this book's prologue, it's written through the lens of a historian's perspective. This book, however, is an appreciation of salient themes in Camus' literary work and various engagements in life that goes beyond scholarly specialization and reflects a wider humanistic approach. My own background as a historian has broadened beyond my academic specialization, as well, to the point that I consider myself in my teaching role as a humanities professor more so than simply a history professor, so I have sympathy for why Zaretsky felt compelled to write this second contemplation of Camus. He did so expertly, too, invoking history as was often necessary but as a partner with literature, philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, etc., all of which speak in parity and harmony, without any one of them serving the greater purposes of the other. It made me want to read not only Elements of a Life, which I had originally intended to do, anyway, but several other books and essays mentioned directly or brought to mind while reading this.

[Maria Ryzhova · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read a biography written in such a style: where the facts of life are in the background, but much more attention is dedicated to the values and beliefs of the person. I am very grateful to the author, Robert Zaretsky, for writing this book. I learned about Camus not only through specific details but also through how they found reflection in his work—what moved him, what he was striving to achieve with his words. Rarely do I find myself marking so many lines, underlining so many thoughts, as I have within these pages.
What did I know about Camus before reading the book? A child of the working class, an opponent of the death penalty, an advocate for the rights of the oppressed. First a friend of Sartre, then a target of his ridicule.
What do I know after reading this book? That he pursued happiness no matter how painful the awareness was that people want to be in a war. His endless love for his silent mother. His love for the sun and the belief that being born under it means it will lead your whole life. That he searched for beauty and convinced himself that there was plenty of it in the world—and that one does not have to feel guilty about it.
*Read in Russian

[Scotty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish that half stars were an option; I would like to place this at 3.5 stars. Since they aren't, I'll round up.

This is a solid work. It does several things well and only a couple poorly. Zaretsky really delves into Camus' life, times, works, and psyche. Mostly positive, but the delving into the psyche is also one of the things that pulls this down some.

Several times throughout the book, Zaretsky tells us with no ambivalence what Camus would have thought about some current or post-mortem event. The implication of intent bothered me, but at least the author backs some of these claims up in a solid way.

The other thing that pinged this book for me was the focus on just a few of Camus' works, namely the Tipasa essays, "The Plague," and "The Rebel." I understand that these were some of Camus' more loaded works, but there are several others that I felt were skimmed over.

Those were my only complaints. I do feel that if you are a fan or even just a reader of Camus, you would benefit from reading this.

[Matt Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at Camus and the quest for meaning in a world which largely seems silent and indifferent. The Camus presented here, and certainly the real Camus, is not a drab, depressing, dour man pointing out the meaninglessness of it all, but a man of passion and vigor, taking up arms against the absurdity of the world. The revolt of Camus is important for us, because anytime we face a threat, internal or external, we don't have to ascribe meaning or try to find the grand purpose in it all. Rather, we must resist it. We must rebel against the conditions which repel us. And in that rebellion, we find true happiness. Brilliantly, Zaretsky closes out the book by mentioning his favorite photograph of Camus, not the usual black and white shots one finds everywhere, but a colorful, joyous photo of Camus and Gallimard, shortly before their deaths. A literary image of Camus as a child playing games with sticks in the wind is another helpful tool for the author. The final line, which bears repeating here: "With this as the image I will always imagine Camus happy."

[Randall Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though this is categorized as biography, Zaretsky spends most of his time defending Camu against his critics, most notably Sartre, whose falling out with Camu seems to have overshadowed the work of each. Zaretsky makes a plausible case that Simone Weil was a bigger influence on Camu in later years than Sartre, and Camu's writing seems to bear that out. While Sartre seems to have foreshadowed Malcolm X's "by any means necessary", Camu rejected violence as a response to the French-Algerian conflict, and drew distinct differences between the natural inclination to rebel and calls for revolution. There isn't much here on Camu's personal life, mere asides in fact about his infidelities, but Zaretsky does take him to task for an ego that craved recognition and was deeply stung by criticism and disapproval. Those parts of the narrative provide the only real attempt to address the Camu mythology and his position as one of the twentieth century's great thinkers.