Modern Classics First Man [Paperback]

In 1960, Albert Camus died in a car accident. The handwritten manuscript of this incomplete autobiographical novel was found in the wreckage. It was published, thirty-four years later, by his daughter Catherine. Albert Camus's wife and friends were afraid to publish it at the time of his death for reasons Catherine Camus explains in her introduction.

`The First Man' is the story of Jacques Cormery's return, at the age of 40, to Algeria, and his reflections on his childhood there. The novel follows Jacques's life from birth to his years in the lycée in Algiers. The novel explores childhood and school, Jacques's love for his mother and his search for a father who died during World War I. The novel may be an incomplete draft, in need of editing and further polish but it has its own raw power, with its insights into a happy but difficult and poor childhood. The novel is also about the colonial history of Algeria, and the relationship with France. Poverty and illiteracy have their own impact, on Jacques and his family, and on their interactions with the world.

`To begin with, poor people's memory is less nourished than that of the rich; it has fewer landmarks in space because they seldom leave the place where they live, and fewer reference points in time throughout lives that are grey and featureless.'

The lessons Jacques learned from his life included his ultimate disappointment at winning a brawl in the schoolyard: `And then he knew that war is no good, because vanquishing a man is as bitter as being vanquished.' There is also his embarrassment at reading film subtitles aloud to his illiterate mother and grandmother at the cinema, and his joy when a public library opens near the lycée.

Those more familiar with Albert Camus's writing than I am may see insights into his other works that I, having not yet read them, cannot appreciate. I read this for a reading group discussion and am moved by the power of the writing, and the realisation, by Jacques Cormery, of the power of literacy. There is a sense too that the acquisition of literacy, as a precursor to written memory, becomes part of an individual's responsibility to society. Albert Camus may have been writing about himself as he collected thoughts and ideas for this novel but I doubt that he was only writing for himself.

`And he too, perhaps more than she, since he had been born in a land without forefathers and without memory, where the annihilation of those who preceded him was still more final and where old age finds none of the solace in melancholy than it does in civilized lands.'

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Albert Camus. I have always liked his books, especially The Plague. My favorite part of that book was not necessarily the conversations between the characters but the moments of solitude where the sensual beauty of the world is silently looked upon. Reading The First Man I found a book by Camus that I prefer to his novels and stories because in this unfinished autobiography you get the feeling you are listening to the loneliest man on earth. It is sad, but it is heartwarming, this is Camus alone and what is important to Camus stands out like it does nowhere else. In other words this is Camus outside the context we normally encounter him in which is the turbulent intellectual debates in France of the 40's and 50's. Camus never believed in the politics of the French left in regards to the Arab countries and the future course of leadership for those nations which were his home from a very early age and where this autobiographical novel takes place. Camus believed in an alliance of European and Arab peoples that would rule together. You cannot help but think Camus was perhaps trying to come to terms with his own identity which was a combination of both places, and perhaps an uneasy combination. In some ways he reminds me of T.E. Lawrence in that his ultimate vision was always at odds with almost everyone elses. Both were ultimately very lonely figures. This book concentrates on the childhood years but since we all know what the future held for Camus it is all the more moving. And that feeling for nature which required no identity and had none of its own it seems was there from the beginning.

This book was written about a man named Jacques Cormery, someone who lived a life a lot like Camus'. My only regret is that Camus did not live long enough to revise it and polish it up, because if you read this book, some parts are a bit disconnected. There were paragraphs he wanted omitted, but were included anyway by the editor. There were also quite a few illegible words marked throughout the book. Anyhow, this book would be best read by people who thought they had rough childhoods. After reading this book, I no longer frown on the days I was disciplined because it just wasn't nearly as bad! You may also appreciate what you have, including certain family members, since both Camus and Cormery both lost their fathers at an early age. Overall, it's a great insight into someone's life, including a lot of personal details, which I enjoyed reading.