As a homage to one of his major influences: the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, Camus wrote The Fall. Its themes and narrator who directly addresses the reader mimics Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, which has been widely considered as one of the pioneering works of Existentialism.
The novella begins as you (the reader) enter a bar in Amsterdam and try to order a drink, but are ignored by the bartender. A fellow who’s sitting next to you says that the bartender only speaks Dutch, and then politely orders your drink. Slowly, this fellow begins a conversation with you that evolves into a confession of his soul and a reflection of war stricken Europe.
The Fall works on so many levels and deserves to be analyzed on each and every one of them, but the strict use of stream of consciousness prose makes it easy to get swept away, and the narrator was incredibly self-indulgent. I’d call it a minor classic to say the least; worth reading, but Camus definitely has better books.
9. Notebooks 1935-1959
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