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Albert Camus: Elements of a Life cover art

Albert Camus: Elements of a Life

By: Robert Zaretsky
Narrated by: Daniel Galvez II
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Summary

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

What listeners say about Albert Camus: Elements of a Life

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Difficult to listen to

This is a fascinating story about the life of Albert Camus but it’s difficult to listen to as the narrator speaks so quickly, racing through unfamiliar names and places so that they are unintelligible. It’s so off-putting and it often seems that he’s reading from a script with no punctuation as sentences are paused where they shouldn’t be. Other samples I’ve listened to by the same narrator are fine. I’ve listened to most of this at x.75 speed just to have a chance of following the story and deciphering names of people and places.

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Good book impaired

Zaretskys book appears to be an interesting read. I write read rather than listen as the narration is poor. It sounds mechanical and uneven with plenty of mispronunciation, almost as if read by a machine. There are even parts where the reader has to repeat himself as he gets something wrong. The rhythm is particularly unnatural jolting and irritating. The result is that at times I found myself concentrating more on the poor reading than on what was being read, thus missing a great deal. My advice is either to buy the book as well (as backup) or simply buy the book and give the audio book a miss.

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The narrator could use a French lesson


A huge Camus fan I was looking forward to this book. However, I found it a bit boring for some reason.
Maybe the lack of French pronounciation
did not help the narrative along?

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