Albert Camus: Elements of a Life

By: Robert Zaretsky

Narrated by: Daniel Galvez II

On October 16, 1957, Albert Camus was dining in a small restaurant on Paris' Left Bank when a waiter approached him with news: the radio had just announced that Camus had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Camus insisted that a mistake had been made and that others were far more deserving of the honor than he. Yet Camus was already recognized around the world as the voice of a generation - a status he had achieved with dizzying speed. He published his first novel, The Stranger, in 1942 and emerged from the war as the spokesperson for the Resistance and, although he consistently rejected the label, for existentialism. Subsequent works of fiction (including the novels The Plague and The Fall), philosophy (notably, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel), drama, and social criticism secured his literary and intellectual reputation. And then on January 4, 1960, three years after accepting the Nobel Prize, he was killed in a car accident.

In a book distinguished by clarity and passion, Robert Zaretsky considers why Albert Camus mattered in his own lifetime and continues to matter today, focusing on key moments that shaped Camus' development as a writer, a public intellectual, and a man.

The book was published by Cornell University Press.

©2010 Cornell University (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks

Good topic, questionable execution

Narration would repeat frequently, like a strange stutter. Made it difficult to follow. But the topic was interesting, while at times being a little dry

Probably a good book -- not a very good reader

Any additional comments?

Wish I would have just bought the print book. The reader is awkward and stiff and distracting to listen to.

Good Quick Window Into His Life

It was brief, but it touched on many salient points - about his life and his thinking, and his relationship to his thinking. I did not know what his thinking was until now (and this is not the place to critique it), so the book did a good job in introducing what he thought and the depth of his thoughts - especially on Algeria, enough for a good analysis and critique.

The Content is Great, the Performance is Less So

Zaretsky's book is well-written, vivid, and engaging. It makes Camus' life and times, and his philosophy and literary work, accessible to the reading with a decent knowledge of life and thought during the Cold War era. Many of the questions and problems that Camus was wrestling with and that he was living through are relevant in a different way in the post-Cold War world, especially with the rise of austerity measures, populism, and authoritarianism. The reading of this audiobook, however, leaves much to be desired. It appears at times that the reader, who actually has a good voice, is reading the text for the first time. He pauses where the text does not call of pauses, thereby distorting the text's meaning and he occasionally re-reads sentences he has just read. At times his voice drifts away from the microphone and back again, giving the volume and uneven feeling. It is as though the publisher would not pay for a second or third take or for editing. Nevertheless, the writing is great and the audio is not completely unworkable. One only wishes the reader had been given a good sound editor and a chance to get to know the text he was about to read.

majordisappoimtment

Would you try another book from Robert Zaretsky and/or Daniel Galvez II?

definitely not

What do you think your next listen will be?

sir horne's hubris

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Daniel Galvez II?

someone who could pronounce ALBERT CAMUS 's name- and had a working ability to pronounce French words

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Albert Camus: Elements of a Life?

all of it

Any additional comments?

yes- I want my credits back!