Looking for novels similar to Camus' The Stranger

[flimp]

Hi guys,

I've been tirelessly looking for novels in which the protagonist has a rather large indifference to the world and lives fearlessly and without care similar to Meursault in The Stranger by Camus. I can't seem to find anything that fits the criteria, it doesn't have to be bleak or negative, positive if anything would be good. I just want a novel where the character is rebelling against his own built in human nature or the constraints society imposes on him, something that makes you feel like going out and living.

Any suggestions?

[Kyriakos]

You could read Camus' The myth of Sisyphus, which was written to accompany the Stranger.

Im not sure what kind of protagonist you are looking for, its been years since i read the Stranger, but possibly Crime and Punishment has a similar theme of rebellion towards society?

[flimp]

The Myth of Sisyphus is pretty much my bible!

I guess i'm just looking for any novel, in which the main character is living life without care for social norms, for whatever reason, maybe a terminal illness for example, or just because thats the way they are.

[Kyriakos]

There is a short story by Proust, written in the first person, where the narrator is a girl with terminal "illness" (she has shot herself, didnt die, but the bullet left some fragments). You might be interested in it :)

Its title (i only have it in Greek) should be something like: "the confession fo a young girl"

[mal4mac]

Sartre's Nausea
Conrad's Victory

[kelby_lake]

Sartre- Huis Clos is fun.

[sixsmith]

Though it's not the most exciting suggestion, I believe Catcher in the Rye is basically an absurdist novel.

[Brad Coelho]

Though it is a bit of a stretch, have you read On the Road by Kerouac? The main character fits fragments of what you're searching for.

[Modest Proposal]

As other's have suggested, Crime and Punishment is a similarly preoccupied novel. One of the stronger ties between these novels/novelists is the existential element, which happens to be a favorite of mine. For other books with this aspect, you could read "All the Kings Men," "The Moviegoer," and almost anything by Kafka or Doestoyevski. This may not actually be the element that you are enjoying in "The Stranger," but these are the books that shared my favorite aspect of Camus's work.

[Gregory Samsa]

I would recommend "Disgrace" by J. M. Coetzee.
The writing and the main character reminds me a lot of Camus.

[Riverrun...]

I'm uncertain about all of these suggestions, but it's worth a try.

Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
The Immoralist, Andre Gide
Notes from Underground, Dostoyevsky

[Heteronym]

Meursault didn't seem that fearless when he pleaded for his life at the end. And Holden in his rebellion got his *** kicked by a pimp, got his kid sister hurt in an accident and ended up in a mental hospital. A true role model for anyone who wants to go out and live.

Now, after spewing vitriol over two novels I despise, a few recommendations:

The Fall, Albert Comus: the 20th century version of Notes from Underground.

The Jokers and A Splendid Conspiracy, Albert Cossery: these two novels got recently translated into English. Cossery's protagonists are social misfits - beggars, thieves, prostitutes and hedonists - who wage secret, farcical wars against the institutionalise powers - politicians, the rich, the police.

The Baron in the Trees, Italo Calvino: a young aristocrat gets tired of receiving orders from his family and decides to spend the rest of his live in the trees.

[Heteronym]

Today I've read a play that you'd certainly like: Rhinoceros, by Eugène Ionesco. It's about an everyman named Berenger who witnesses the people around him turn into rhinoceroses, and how he struggles to retain his individuality amidst this wave of comformity. It's a wonderful example of the Theatre of the Absurd.

[Iwanuschka]

I second Nausea and The Fall.