First Man, The - Albert Camus

This book is thought to be a personal novel, and its unedited original copy was found in the auto destruction in which Camus was slaughtered. Notwithstanding for an unedited bit of work, it is just an artful culmination. It is not frequently that I battle to discover words; yet, this is one of those times. Perusing this unfinished original copy has abandoned me without words to express how I feel about it.

The deplorable piece of this is it is generally without a closure, as Albert Camus kicked the bucket in an auto crash, the uncompleted original copy of this in the secondary lounge, when he was just in his forties.

Overall this is a complicated book so basically this one is only for Camus book lovers.

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Albert Camus' The First Man is a stunning story of a French boy growing up in Algiers. Jacques Cormery, the main character of the novel, is taken all the way from birth to the lyceé (secondary school) to his first love. Camus said about this novel that he wanted it to be ''heavy with flesh and things.'' And that's exactly what this novel is. It's a visceral description of childhood and what a child feels like while attending that portion of his or her life. Camus describes even the most basic things in amazing ways; the ocean, food, fun, a child's love for his or her mother. All those things that we take for granted as ''grown-ups'' are described in grand accuracy here.

The book begins with Jacques being born in Algiers. Jacques is taken through childhood, along the way learning lessons of life and friendship. He plays by the sea and scrounges for money. Then, he meets M. Bernard, a teacher. In M. Bernard's class, Jacques reads Les Croix de Bois, a book about World War 1. I'll quote what happens here, because it can't be said better than how Camus says it:

''And on the day at the end of the year when, as the arrived at the end of the book, M. Bernard read them the death of D. in a subdued voice, when he closed the book in silence, facing his own melodies and emotions, then raised his eyes to his silent, overwhelmed class, he saw Jacques in the first row staring at him with his face bathed in tears and shaking with sobs that seemed as if they would never end.''

M. Bernard gives Jacques the book and helps him get a scholarship to the lyceé. Jacques begins attending secondary school at the lyceé, and he begins reading everything he can get his hands on. At one point, Jacques has to lie about his going back to school so he can get a job. He feels horrible about this. Finally, as Jacques begins to find love and is on the edge of adulthood, the book ends with a fitting finality. No climax, no resolution. Camus drops us off while we're moving up the hill. This is, apparently, when Camus died in a car crash and this book was pulled from the wreckage. This is an amazing book with an extremely powerful voice.

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