Thanks for this. Anyone who says Camus is not a philosopher is not a philosopher. The sentence which resonated the most for me: "I have never been able to believe, deep inside, that human affairs are serious matters".

I read this book when i was 17 and it taught me to always examine my own motives especially when i do something for someone else.

I think this book is kind of similar to Dostoievsky's Notes from underground. Camus obviously read it and became a big influence on him.

Beautiful book. I kept it my coat pocket for months on end, just to read the sentences while riding the subway. It is my favorite Camus book. Bravo on your review.

When you read that passage... I wish I could hear a complete audiobook in that voice... Keep up the good work!

Sublime. Having just finished this book, it is now in the hands of another. Thanks for elucidating this gem to a wider audience Regards from Manchester, United Kingdom.

Thank you. This is one of those very rare occasions when I see or hear a review of something I've read and it makes me want to read it again.

As one of the many who have reviewed the Stranger, good on you for doing something different! I enjoyed the video.

Go check out all the extras for free on this new video platform. www.maven.video/c/cliff-sargent

Happy to see a review of The Fall it's my all time favorite book

Love your reviews, this book sounds interesting definitely going to look it up.

FINALLY! a book I HAVE read.

I just finished The Fall and after watching this, I don't even want to watch/read another review. You make me want to re-read it...away I go!

I always had a secret desire to live being nobody... Sometimes I enjoy just being alone in tiny confide space ...so I can metaphorically feel safe that no one is aware about my existence... Normally I read books or watch movie (any normal activity that can be done in that small space) ... to say ..I am very normal person...I have a healthy happy life...But still thought of alone forgotten is beautiful .

Great review of a great book. The thumbnail picture is exactly how I pictured Jean-Baptiste Clamence looks like in my mind. eerie.

The Plague is a masterpiece.

Good to see a review of this book. It calls out the hypocrisy of a bourgeoisie that hits pretty close to home.

Awesome review, and thanks for the video. I just got done reading this for the first time today. I made a connection, at least stylistically, between 'The Fall' and 'Notes from Underground'. In both, you have a highly intelligent, articulate, arrogant nihilist confessing in the first person the darkest depths of his soul, making excuses for his own inadequacies and then justifying them in a way that makes him feel superior for having done so. Both books also take that character in all of his reprehensible self loathing, and, like Jean-Baptiste describes at the end of this book, turn him on the reader and reflect it back like a mirror. They illustrate what might be considered a very poor assimilation of the Jungian shadow, the darkest parts of our psyche that hide away in the recesses or our mind, that we are too afraid to bring forward and deal with. Who hasn't at some point felt proud and powerful in their own exaggerated sense of victimization, as if they had the right to judge the entire world by virtue of their own imagined oppression and hyperbolic self pity? Who hasn't felt the sting of unfairness and incomprehensibility of a situation, or life in general; felt the bitter resentment rise up; and the subsequent urge to do everything possible to make the situation infinitely worse? Who hasn't suffered the agonizing, endless discomfort of the little-ease of life, where we with our individual sovereignty, freedom and free will stand in isolated opposition to everyone else, crushed under the weight of their judgement until we can neither stand, sit, or stretch and are left to die in darkness? Though over a century apart, I think these two books pair wonderfully and the 'The Fall' is immediately one of my new favorite books.

I read the fall at the age of 19, 34 years ago. Thanks for reminding me of it, and In consequence I can almost see how it influenced me. I was an art student back then. I found a man who had attempted suicide a while after that, but in contrast I phoned for help and he didn’t die, even so it haunted me for a while.

"Thousand yard stare of Guilt and Shame and Tragedy, ERGGHHH!" Love it

Good in-depth review. Thanks for making this.

Categorising books by how easy or quick they are to read seems like it would be useful. Great review, btw ;)

Best book I read this summer. Thanks for the video.

Such an intriguing book; It sparks a certain kind of strange hunger, and its sentences trail like the will-o'-the-wisps. You'll find what we had to say about it most fascinating.

Amazing representation. , last night I finished this book. And each line of this book are my favorite. Thank you for explaining .

I thoroughly enjoyed your book review! Thank you!

I enjoyed this more than The Stranger. thanks for the review, love books!

"Red-wine Wednesday." Sounds like a plan.

Haven't read this one but your description of the narrative setup sounds similar to The Reluctant Fundamentalist, where you're just a passive listener to a narrator talking directly to you in a bar/cafe. Nice review! I didn't enjoy The Stranger but may give this a blast :)

Heeeey Cliff. Great fuckin' review. Just had a birthday a couple days ago, and with Camus being one of the favorite authors, this helped make it an even better celebration. I tend to try and push Camus on friends and relatives, when they're looking at introspective work from someone whose ramblings I consider to be proof the crazy aren't so much. You've done a hell of a job summing that up here. Hope you had a great labor day weekend. I know I did.

I just started reading this and your vid popped up. will save this for later!

Finally a good review of this book!!!

We had an all-weekend celebration commemorating Lost Cross, (debatably) the oldest punk house in America over Labor Day weekend in my town. It was also a celebration of a local musician named Tim who was shot in his bedroom earlier this year, accidentally, by angry kids at a party next door. I can't think of a better way to nurse a three day hangover than going back to Camus, with pancakes.

Brilliant as always!

I love the chaotic energy in this video

I've read The Fall three times so far, and this review makes me want to read it again. By far, the best Camus has ever written... speaking of which, Camus employed this 2nd person narration in a short story called "The Renegade." It's a priest who had his tongue cut out by infidels that tells the story this time. Dostoevsky also used the 2nd person in his novella, "Notes from the Underground." Anyhow, thanks. I enjoyed the review.

"Don't wait for the Final Judgment. It happens every day." If that does not describe Internet demagoguery - I don't know what will.

I agree, separating by length would be extremely helpful. I feel the same.

You are amazing!! Subscribed 🧡

I love your narration of Clamence in the book.

Great video man! You nailed it! :D

'No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures' was my high school yearbook quote. Glad I had that in my back pocket from reading this book in one week a few years before graduating. Recognized many people in this one narrator...

You remind me of the guy who does the art of manliness podcast. Voice and demeanor. Anyways, you're very captivating and informative, subscribed. :)

Cliff, old review but a great one. But for the love of God can you tell me how you do your hair?

Not sure if you check comments on old videos but I thought I'd suggest a book to you that is somewhat similar in structure to this one. Wittgenstein's Mistress is a special little book that I think you'd highly enjoy.

I get that problem of sorting books by length, I really want to read "The Better Angels of Our Nature" but I'm saving it for after graduation...

To my knowledge it wasn't Camus last book. Not even the last one published ante mortem. His last book is The First Man, which is awesome until you reach the chapters that he didn't have the time to rewrite. But you gave me an idea of what to read next, mate.

Hey man, great review, thanks a lot :) ever consider reviewing Bukowski? Would be nice. Cheers for all the reviews

Whatcha think about reviewing Grendel? Lit bit of Gardener never hurt nobody. Plus I think he did something ballsy/perfect with the almost unreadable Beowulf.

When are you going to do JG Ballard? High-Rise?

Consider reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist if you'd like to read a similar narrative voice. However, you'll find yourself sipping tea in Karachi instead of drinking wine in Amsterdam ;)

great book and great review, kudos et viva, what to do if he we hear that splash?! ;-) ps how about something linking another great post punk band and another gem? 'shooting an arab' perhaps? :-)

I would suggest we wouldn't be able to save her but we would have the courage to try, mainly because of how cold the water is and the speed of the current, that and it would be my first time having the capacity to trying to save anyone.

the quote from Lermontov, at beginning, is Genius.....'A Hero Of Our Time'....

Have you read the plague? Not as good as the fall or the stranger but if you are on a camus binge is an intresting read.

I want to start a channel for audio books. Wanted to know if there are any copyright issues?

loved the book!

clicked this video cos the thumbnail is too epic

I love your comparison of the Protagonist to Lucifer, The fallen angel. Makes sense.

Excellent. THE FALL , hell of a book. And one hell of a band. MARK E. SMITH the HIP PRIEST! R.I.P.

"now I can remember! now I can remember!" The Classical, what a funky racket! You should review The Friends of Eddie Coyle one of MES's favourite novels.

Thank you for reading to us. ✌️💙

Looking great! Greetings from Berlin

My G, big love x

I read The Fall 30 years ago (10 times). Due to vandalism by my children I lost the book. I am now coming out The Fall and into Winter, Then April (Spring) Is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs from the dead Land. 😇

What a fantastic take on a fantastic book. I read the Fall after reading the Conspiracy against the human race and damn, felt like an antidote

Would it be possible to e-mail you a question, Cliff?

Is that a Gibson in the corner? The fret markers look like it but im not so sure

Thank you 🙏🌸

I just finished this book and I have no clue what I've just read

May as well review A Happy Death, too.

Not Criterion. Janus films.

Hey man, we got Labor Day in Canada too!

This is more a description of the plot than a review of the book

One of my childhood favorites thanks for doing this!!!

Is that Welch's?

This reviewer in this review reminds me of Jean-Baptiste Clamence in Camus' novel The Fall

This sounds right up my street. I loved 'The Stranger' and 'The Plague', but then read 'A Happy Death' a drag to read (not the subject but everything feels directionless after the murder), so I've been a little apprehensive picking up another Camus book, but I'm definitely giving this a go.

You look fucking great in this suit

woah. made me think of "The Falls" by George Saunders. same dilemma / different outcome. also "Good Old Neon" now that i think of it. fuck

Awesome book. Truly agressive.

Is this guy a thesp ?

The Myth of SisyFIRST

RIP Mark E. Smith.

Hmm... Some of Ligotti's short stories have done something vaguely similar to this, sometimes. Not as effectively, I suppose, but hey. Fuckin' Ligotti.

one of the best books of Camus. It has a philosophical aspect of the human being. Too deep, and takes time to re-read and understand it.

I like Paul Celan.

9:45 Ft. LA

Intro reminds me of Gregsbeerreviews

gagaggagaga that accent at the start

So stylish

Have you read The Idiot by Dostoyevsky? I personally think its better than Crime and Punishment.

Read infinite jest? Or the broom of the system :):) sooooo good

I thought the fall was 90 odd pages

Yyyyeesss!!!!

Albert Camus stated that the point of philosophy is to resolve the issue as to whether one wants to live or to die. He was also a proponent of Absurdist philosophy.

I read this around the same time as the Stranger years ago. Really liked The Stranger; didn't care for this one...

23: 05 thats me :)

A Bukowski-esque performance. Nicely done.

i was pronouncing it like hummus