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I can't claim that I read every essay in this book, nor that I liked every one that I did read, but the ones that I read and enjoyed, I enjoyed SO much that this collection definitely deserves 4 stars. Camus' intellect and erudition are deep and incisive. I found myself making connections between his thoughts and others I've read, from Rilke to Wendell Berry. And his writing in gorgeous. I think my favorite essay was "Between Yes and No." The sensory detail and metaphors are beautiful, like when he describes the sound of the distant sea as "the world sighs toward me in a long rhythm, and brings me the peace and indifference of immortal things." So much in that one phrase: a perfect description of what the ocean sounds like from a distance, a perfect evocation of the feelings it inspires, and a perfect philosophical statement about the difference between humans and immortals. Camus is often lumped in with Sartre as an existentialist, but he claims in another essay that that's an incorrect classification. In fact, he insists on not being classified, pointing out that when he writes he is exploring questions, which is different from providing answers (hence the mental link I made to Rilke). I think he is an existentialist to the extent that he doesn't claim to know what our lives mean, or whether they have any significance at all. What he really seems to advocate in many of these essays is simply paying attention to moments and events as they play out, and pondering them for a meaning that we will never fully understand.
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