a cultural essay as well as a great novel - Rated 
I could feel the heat and dust, and the blinding sun in my eyes reading this. Camus lets you into his memory of living with his mother as well as creating a novel which must be largely autobiographical. I can still see images in my mind as if I'd seen a movie, not read a page of words. His descriptions are so thorough. I especially like the hunting trip. I thinks this is as good as The Outsider.
Thr first book of the Camus - Rated
People knows this book as the last book of camus. But I do belive is a same stuff as the first short stories of him (Inside Out) which maybe can find hardly...although he loves the sun...& the sun was the same thing during his life
The First Man's Last Book... - Rated
Having read a number of other books by Camus, such as The Fall, The Outsider, A Happy Death, and The Plague, I thought I'd try my luck here, although on picking up the book, I was a little put off at first...
Primarily, it must be noted that the book in question, The First Man, was not finished by Camus. Indeed, on reading the prologue by his daughter, Catherine Camus, we find that the manuscript of this incomplete work was found with the author in the car which he died in following an accident. Consequently, on reading the actual text, there are many footnotes to aid the reader, almost on every page, pointing out that a certain character's name has changed, or that Camus had made a mistake which he had not got round to changing before his death, etc.
Secondly, we find that The First Man, although not an autobiography, is, by and large, autobiographical in relation to the content with regards to the author's own life. However, we only reach the stage of Jacques Cormery's life (ie. Camus), where he is near to completing his education at the lycée in Algiers, and consequently we do not have the blistering accounts of how he was to travel to France under German occupation to aid the Resistence, or of when his literary fame came into being.
So, with all this in mind, why have I given this 5 stars- Why read The First Man?
Firstly, this is a touching book, and although sadly much was not written due to the author's untimely death in 1960, he did manage to get a lot down about his birth in a mall village in Algeria under French rule, about his Franco-Spanish ancestry, about the seering heat of the African sun hanging over the sand and sea of the Mediterranean in the 1920's. We feel the pleasures of a poor family, their hopes and fears and dreams, and share funny glimpses of everyday life (like uncle Ernest picking flees off his dog). We see the playground fights, the tensions between the Arabs and Europeans in the streets and desert, and the daily struggle to survive in general. The characters are real, and the scenary too is brought to life, and this book (even unfinished it has 260 pages) is a real page- turner.
This edition also has, at the 'end', a section of Camus' notes, showing how the novel would have developed, and a picture soon emerges, confirming the readers suspicions from the start that, on visiting his dead father's grave (he had been killed in World War One, when Camus was just one), the author is looking for a man he does not know and will never know; it is not his father, but himself.
One thing I think should be pointed out too, which is not evident at first, is that this edition also includes two letters, one from, and one to, the author's former teacher, who had helped this poor, small wretch of a boy to discover himself, and to gain a proper education, and to go on to become one of the towering figures in world literature in the twentieth century. Both these letters, with thanks and advice, are humbling, and add enormously to what is a blistering and emotive read. Excellent!
An incomplete masterpiece - Rated
'The First Man' was a manuscript left,unrevised by Albert Camus. It is impossible to know what the exact novel would have been- but what we have: sketches, notes, outlines- in this edition is more than enough...Strange, but this book deals with the time spent in youth, the period before we met Meursault in 'The Outsider'...The oddest image is that of a son at the grave of his father, technically older than him- this recalls or predicts texts by Samuel Beckett ('Molloy') & Paul Auster ('Leviathan')...This would be the ideal children's book, if it weren't hard to read- due to its incompleteness...This book is very odd and charming nevertheless; probably best read after an appreciation of Camus's other key works. 'The Outsider', 'The Myth of Sisyphus','The Plague', 'The Rebel' & 'The Fall'. He was one of the most important and talented writers of the 20th century and his words still matter. The publication of this manuscript proves that even more so...
A life story of no ordinary pedigree - Rated 
The book has a curious start but nevertheless a quick-paced one. The story wanders from the touching vagaries of the main character, to the pragmatic sense of scene description that leaves the rest to the imagination. This and the taste of a world that you know, yet don't, or never will leaves an eager want to read further. A book that concludes to open your comprehension and understanding to other possibilities in everyday situations. If you fail gain value from the feeling given from the characters indeed you have failed to read the book!
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