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Exile and the Kingdom Albert Camus
If anyone doubted Camus creative revival in the 1950's with the publication of The Fall then they had only to pick up Exile and the Kingdom published one year later in 1957 to once again appreciate a novelist whose artistry and power places him amongst the forefront of 20th century writers. Exile and the Kingdom is a collection of six short stories that are arranged in such a way, that allow Camus to develop his theme of exile through each of his characters who are individuals out of step and therefore exiled from those around them and who are searching to find acceptance in some other place. In the final story "The Growing Stone" the French engineer D'Arrast may have found such a place when a family of a primitive Brazilian tribe ask him to 'Sit down with us': the final words of the final story and a truly satisfying end to the collection. In the mid 1950's Camus; a French Algerian was acutely aware of his exile from his native Algeria at a time when the country was embroiled in a desperate revolution against it's colonial rulers and Camus found himself unable to support the Arab Nationalists or their French rulers.
The Adulterous Wife Camus heroes were very rarely women but in this story he tells us of Janine who is accompanying her French husband in the wider areas of North Africa. He is trying to make his living selling cloth to Arab dealers in remote oasis towns. The desert conditions are intolerable and the couple are faced with a proud people who have little respect for the French merchants. Janine in spite of herself is drawn towards the native Africans and slips out of her hotel room at night to retrace the steps that she took earlier in day with her reluctant husband when they climbed to the top of an old fort and Janine saw a campment of nomads. Her night trip is perilous, but she finally gets back to the top of the fort where she has an experience that is sublime.
The Renegade or A Confused Mind is written in the first person and uses a stream of conscious technique to tell in flashbacks the story of a renegade missionary who is held captive by a primitive desert tribe. He is hiding in an outcrop of rocks and he has a rifle with him and is waiting for the next missionary to make an appearance. The renegade we learn has been captured by the tribe, tortured and horribly mutilated and is now completely under their power. Camus skilfully uses modernist techniques to portray a man confused in mind and body and viscerally places the reader inside the character who suffers appallingly. A tour de force.
The Voiceless Although again set in North Africa this story has a very different feel to the others. We first encounter Yvars on his daily bicycle ride to work. Yvars is feeling his age and the reluctance that he feels about his journey today is because he and his workmates have been on strike for a few weeks and have been forced to go back to work without achieving any of their objectives. Camus takes us inside the workshop where the men are making barrels and we follow their uneasy relationship with the boss of the factory who is trying to mend fences. The men refuse to speak to him, but that day the bosses daughter is suddenly taken ill and an ambulance is called. This is a story about changing relationships and of things lost that can never be regained.
The Guest We are in a remote schoolroom in the mountains of Algeria. The schoolmaster; Daru notices two men slowly climbing the mountain towards him, one of the men he knows; a Gendarme who has with him an Arab prisoner. The Gendarme says there has been an uprising and he must get back to headquarters and he instructs Daru to take the prisoner onto regional headquarters where he is to stand trial for murder. Daru and the Arab spend an uncomfortable night together and in the morning Daru has to decide what to do with the Arab, who has resolutely rejected the opportunity to escape that Daru has given him. Daru a lonely exile in a hostile country faces a choice of where he belongs.
Jonas, or the Artist at Work Another change of pace for this story of an Artist who follows his star. He is only interested in his painting, but his fortunate upbringing and his supportive wife and friends allow him to follow his muse. He becomes fashionably famous and Camus has great fun in describing the hordes of admirers that flock to his strangely cramped apartment to be with the artist of the moment. Jonas is a benevolent man to the extent that he works hard not to upset anybody, he is a caring family man whose only regret it seems is that he no longer has much time to paint. He eventually becomes unfashionable has a sort of breakdown and in a last desperate attempt to find space to work he builds himself a mezzanine in one of his large rooms. His muse returns just so that he can at last paint his masterpiece and after days in isolation on his ledge he produces his final canvas.
The Growing Stone A story that is a fitting end to this collection. D'Arrast after a perilous journey arrives at a primitive Brazilian village in the forest where he has been commissioned to build a dam. He is welcomed by the local dignitaries, but seeks his own friends among the working men of the village. He befriends a cook who tells him that he has a price to pay for a stroke of good fortune that saved his life. He must perform a prodigious feet of strength at a religious ceremony to be held in the village the next day. D'Arrast is invited to observe as the villagers whip themselves up into a drug and alcohol infused celebration and D'Arrast finds he becomes inextricably involved in the culture of this strange society.
Camus short stories immediately plunge the reader into his characters situation usually with a description of a challenging environment; he uses the motif of a journey, sometimes in extreme conditions. "The Adulterous Wife" starts with a difficult journey on a local bus through a sandstorm in North Africa and you can almost feel the sand in your hair, Yvas bicycle ride to work on the morning that the strike has been broken is full of nostalgia for a lost youth and remembrance of past journeys when the ride gave him so much pleasure. D'Arrast's journey through the Brazilian rain forest at night in the shadowy wet, sliding down to the river crossing. Then there is the immediacy of the Renegades torture in the mud hut of his captors and Daru's uncomfortable night with the Arab in the schoolroom, these are events full of atmosphere, of trepidation, but above all of realism. The stories are perfectly shaped, with hardly a wasted word and although the endings rarely resolve a situation and throw up as many questions as answers they all feel just right. There are similarities to some of the stories but they each have an individual character of their own, the similarities are because of the themes that link them together; all the heroes are men and women in exile of one kind or another, they are all searching for something different or for times past, their present situation is unsatisfying, they crave for a new kind of freedom and yet they are all sympathetic to their environment. They are looking for the kingdom. This is a wonderful set of stories with not a weak one in the collection, all will linger with me and so a Five star rating.
If anyone doubted Camus creative revival in the 1950's with the publication of The Fall then they had only to pick up Exile and the Kingdom published one year later in 1957 to once again appreciate a novelist whose artistry and power places him amongst the forefront of 20th century writers. Exile and the Kingdom is a collection of six short stories that are arranged in such a way, that allow Camus to develop his theme of exile through each of his characters who are individuals out of step and therefore exiled from those around them and who are searching to find acceptance in some other place. In the final story "The Growing Stone" the French engineer D'Arrast may have found such a place when a family of a primitive Brazilian tribe ask him to 'Sit down with us': the final words of the final story and a truly satisfying end to the collection. In the mid 1950's Camus; a French Algerian was acutely aware of his exile from his native Algeria at a time when the country was embroiled in a desperate revolution against it's colonial rulers and Camus found himself unable to support the Arab Nationalists or their French rulers.
The Adulterous Wife Camus heroes were very rarely women but in this story he tells us of Janine who is accompanying her French husband in the wider areas of North Africa. He is trying to make his living selling cloth to Arab dealers in remote oasis towns. The desert conditions are intolerable and the couple are faced with a proud people who have little respect for the French merchants. Janine in spite of herself is drawn towards the native Africans and slips out of her hotel room at night to retrace the steps that she took earlier in day with her reluctant husband when they climbed to the top of an old fort and Janine saw a campment of nomads. Her night trip is perilous, but she finally gets back to the top of the fort where she has an experience that is sublime.
The Renegade or A Confused Mind is written in the first person and uses a stream of conscious technique to tell in flashbacks the story of a renegade missionary who is held captive by a primitive desert tribe. He is hiding in an outcrop of rocks and he has a rifle with him and is waiting for the next missionary to make an appearance. The renegade we learn has been captured by the tribe, tortured and horribly mutilated and is now completely under their power. Camus skilfully uses modernist techniques to portray a man confused in mind and body and viscerally places the reader inside the character who suffers appallingly. A tour de force.
The Voiceless Although again set in North Africa this story has a very different feel to the others. We first encounter Yvars on his daily bicycle ride to work. Yvars is feeling his age and the reluctance that he feels about his journey today is because he and his workmates have been on strike for a few weeks and have been forced to go back to work without achieving any of their objectives. Camus takes us inside the workshop where the men are making barrels and we follow their uneasy relationship with the boss of the factory who is trying to mend fences. The men refuse to speak to him, but that day the bosses daughter is suddenly taken ill and an ambulance is called. This is a story about changing relationships and of things lost that can never be regained.
The Guest We are in a remote schoolroom in the mountains of Algeria. The schoolmaster; Daru notices two men slowly climbing the mountain towards him, one of the men he knows; a Gendarme who has with him an Arab prisoner. The Gendarme says there has been an uprising and he must get back to headquarters and he instructs Daru to take the prisoner onto regional headquarters where he is to stand trial for murder. Daru and the Arab spend an uncomfortable night together and in the morning Daru has to decide what to do with the Arab, who has resolutely rejected the opportunity to escape that Daru has given him. Daru a lonely exile in a hostile country faces a choice of where he belongs.
Jonas, or the Artist at Work Another change of pace for this story of an Artist who follows his star. He is only interested in his painting, but his fortunate upbringing and his supportive wife and friends allow him to follow his muse. He becomes fashionably famous and Camus has great fun in describing the hordes of admirers that flock to his strangely cramped apartment to be with the artist of the moment. Jonas is a benevolent man to the extent that he works hard not to upset anybody, he is a caring family man whose only regret it seems is that he no longer has much time to paint. He eventually becomes unfashionable has a sort of breakdown and in a last desperate attempt to find space to work he builds himself a mezzanine in one of his large rooms. His muse returns just so that he can at last paint his masterpiece and after days in isolation on his ledge he produces his final canvas.
The Growing Stone A story that is a fitting end to this collection. D'Arrast after a perilous journey arrives at a primitive Brazilian village in the forest where he has been commissioned to build a dam. He is welcomed by the local dignitaries, but seeks his own friends among the working men of the village. He befriends a cook who tells him that he has a price to pay for a stroke of good fortune that saved his life. He must perform a prodigious feet of strength at a religious ceremony to be held in the village the next day. D'Arrast is invited to observe as the villagers whip themselves up into a drug and alcohol infused celebration and D'Arrast finds he becomes inextricably involved in the culture of this strange society.
Camus short stories immediately plunge the reader into his characters situation usually with a description of a challenging environment; he uses the motif of a journey, sometimes in extreme conditions. "The Adulterous Wife" starts with a difficult journey on a local bus through a sandstorm in North Africa and you can almost feel the sand in your hair, Yvas bicycle ride to work on the morning that the strike has been broken is full of nostalgia for a lost youth and remembrance of past journeys when the ride gave him so much pleasure. D'Arrast's journey through the Brazilian rain forest at night in the shadowy wet, sliding down to the river crossing. Then there is the immediacy of the Renegades torture in the mud hut of his captors and Daru's uncomfortable night with the Arab in the schoolroom, these are events full of atmosphere, of trepidation, but above all of realism. The stories are perfectly shaped, with hardly a wasted word and although the endings rarely resolve a situation and throw up as many questions as answers they all feel just right. There are similarities to some of the stories but they each have an individual character of their own, the similarities are because of the themes that link them together; all the heroes are men and women in exile of one kind or another, they are all searching for something different or for times past, their present situation is unsatisfying, they crave for a new kind of freedom and yet they are all sympathetic to their environment. They are looking for the kingdom. This is a wonderful set of stories with not a weak one in the collection, all will linger with me and so a Five star rating.
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