I'd been meaning to read this book for ages but somehow never quite got around to it. In the appropriate setting of my job as an English teacher to French teenagers I finally bit the bullet and did it. I have to say that I don't regret it. I can see why it's such a classic; it reminds me of "Catcher in the Rye" with its strange honesty and trains of thought. It's disconcerting seeing the world through Meursault's eyes. He is so detached, so unbothered by life's daily trials that he seems alien. The worrying thing is that I can't tell if he has some kind of learning difficulty or mental illness, or if he's just someone who refuses to meet societies' expectations. Whatever he is, he's fascinating.
18) What I Was by Meg Rosoff
A young adult book that I picked up off the shelf of my family's holiday house, this book explores teenage sexuality without any sex, and teenage love without any declarations. In a way, this is frustrating; we, the readers, feel like we are being promised something that never comes to pass; but in another way it is quite refreshing, especially given the secret revealed at the very end. It is sort of ironic, that the main character, who we feel so close to, is nameless to us, yet Finn, the aloof Finn, is named but mysterious, never quite letting us in.
I found this book enjoyable, despite a slight skepticism about the age of the main protagonist, who is supposed to be sixteen, but often seems much younger. This may, however, just be because I don't remember well enough what it was like to be sixteen...I am getting old ^^
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