I didn’t know what it was about at the start of reading this book. All I knew was that it was a popular book that I have seen discussed on different social media so it took a while for me to catch on. Luckily, the book is quite short so the gist of it becomes apparent quite quickly.

It basically read the same as Nausea from Sartre (which I also read and reviewed) and so wasn’t quite the page turner because you are just following someone’s life for a bit only this one was a bit more depressing. The reason I found it more depressing is because in the book we follow someone who literally just lives life. This life however takes place in a not so super great surrounding or at least some of the individuals in the surroundings of the main character are less than a good Samaritan. Because our protagonist is just living life they are immensely passive about anything and everything occurring in their personal life. Their descriptions, the way they talk to others, etc. are all just observations they do without much or any opinion at all.

This way of living eventually leads them towards a life where the people around him are filling in the gaps because they (neighbors, boss, girlfriend, etc) cannot grasp why he lives like this. His neighbors come to him to vent and gets him to do some things that can be considered questionable, his girlfriend suggests marriage and he agrees halfheartedly, and in the end his lawyer performs his confession as if the lawyer himself did the crime.

All of this eventually leads him to the pastor who wants him to confess his sins but our protagonist is not religious and has no interest in converting in his last few living days. All he wants to do is live his life his way no matter how long (or short) it would be but in the he finally expresses this to the pastor. Albeit somewhat maniacally. He starts chocking the pastor and screaming at him how he doesn’t care about how others think he should life and that he has no interest in their opinion but for some reason he “must” (out of his own volition) be affected by it.

He wanted to live it his way and did so until the very end or at least tried his best to make sure his own life path not influenced by others too much.

Opinion#

I don’t think I would read it again. I just think that Nausea was better, less depressing, and easier to read. No that this was a difficult book but I felt depressed reading the passivity in their life. It felt straining on my mental and it almost made me also want to force to guy into action. I guess maybe that was the intention of the book. To show that all of us for some reason cannot grasp the absurdity of life and that seeing someone living theirs in a “absurd” way or a way we ourselves can’t imagine we want to change that. Something that we maybe shouldn’t do because it is their life to live.