Out of Africa

So it's official, I've finished "Little Bee." Alex was right, (again) and it was so, so worth my while. As I told you before, "Little Bee" is not a story that you can divulge much about without ruining. However, I can tell you that "Little Bee" is a novel about an Nigerian girl's lost identity, faith in humanity, guilt, and morality. It is a story about learning how to stop surviving and start truly living.... And that some things are worth living for, and even worth sacrificing yourself for. Read it. It's funny, complex, touching, and really absolutely captivating. You won't regret it as it will surely affect even the most staunch of this world's "baddies."

Anyways, my very first official blog posting was about "The English Patient," one of my all-time favorites. A large part of TEP takes part in the vast deserts of Libya, and I thought it would be appropriate to round out my current literary inclination with another one of my favorite Authors, and another novel set in spellbinding Africa...

Love the coat Mr. Camus

Albert Camus was a French-Algerian novelist, philosopher, and winner of the Noble Prize in Literature (the first African to have done so). He was an existentialist sophist and had an obsession with writing

about the absurd. "The Stranger" is his most famous novel and is thought to have inspired the song Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

I, however, will be re-reading my most favorite story of his - "The Plague." It is the book that won Camus his Nobel prize in 1957, and it encompasses many of the things that fascinate me; disease, exile, irony, faith, and perceived freedom.

Alex happens to have a distinct hatred for all things Camus, but I happen to blame that on our 11th grade English teacher she-ogre. (she made the witch from Hansel & Gretel look like Mother Teresa) Despite Alex's stigmatic views, I think it's a perfect way to read something out of Africa, and into my own life.