Reviews for C'est la vie!, A French Reader

The average rating for C'est la vie!, A French Reader based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-04-03 00:00:00 John Higley This is a great reprisal of published essays that appeared in the underground newspaper Combat, that was published in France during the German occupation. Albert Camus was the editor for many years and there's a strong case that most of the essays in this collection were his. He makes some very important points and expounds on his ideas on democracy and how to define a republic as a democracy or not. As is usual for Camus, he is fearless and never hesitates to stand in a room full of people and tell them exactly where their hypocrisy lies and what to do about it. He was practically the only public voice after the liberation that came out against the policy in Algiers and put France's heels to the fire for pretending at democracy while practicing abusive and rapacious colonialism overseas. This is a great read for our current times. If you've been keeping up with the executive orders coming out of our white-house-of-shame, you'll find these thoughts hits home.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-09-04 00:00:00 Cedric Martel Four stars is an average of the various things at play here: The introductory essay by the translator is an easy 5/5. For someone studying Camus, or interested in the progression of his philosophy during the mid 40s, it's an easy 5/5. An indispensable historical document for the English speaking Camus fan. The essays themselves are very, very mixed in terms of both interest and quality. Some are among my favorite things I've ever read of Camus, especially the editorial he wrote two days after Hiroshima. But a lot of it, particularly in 1944-45, is vague polemic. The experience of just reading through it, taking out the historical context, is a 2 or 3/5.