This epitome of the mid-20th Century existential novel was instrumental in Camus receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 when he wrote an Afterword for the novel.  In the story, Merisault is a rather average, undistinguished man living alone in Algiers, working as a clerk in a business, sleeping with his new girlfriend, minding his own business in a rather drab and quiet life, when he is unexpectedly swept up into events.  His mother dies in a nursing home and he attends the funeral; he is recruited by his neighbor, a pimp named Raymond, to write a letter to Raymond’s girlfriend and become his mate; he goes to the beach with Raymond and Marie and ends up shooting an Arab who has threatened Raymond.  Next thing Merisault knows he’s in a Kafkaesque prison/trial/guillotine process from which he is powerless to extract himself.  Merisault has no strong opinions or wishes but goes with the flow (when Marie asks him to marry her, his response is “Okay, Why not.”), and it’s a bad flow at that.  Heralded as the premier novel of ambiguity and man’s alienation from society, this is a puzzling read.  Merisault seems helpless to manage his life, and perhaps that is Camus’ message:  take charge or fate and the world will steamroll you.