The book “fall” is written by Albert Camus, a French philosopher. He was awarded Noble prize in 1957. Albert Camus was an absurdist, though people confuse him to be an anexistentialist. Fall is one of his famous books where he expresses ideas in a very simple and communicative way. The book is told in first narration, in the form of prose writing_ the writing narration of the story by main character.
The book tells the story of a lawyer (Jean baptiste clemence) who narrates his life to a stranger. Jean tells an stranger, that he had seen the peek of his career and also the lowest point. At the time of narration that man was an utter failure.
The book starts in a cafe called “The Mexico City” in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The setting of the book is both, real and fictional. Some of the places are real and some of them are unusual.
He claims to be a social guy with an amicable quality of making friends. He says he was found of intellect people and that he never missed making them his friends. His charm was appreciated by everyone from noble to common people, from female celebrities to widows, from prevelged to orphans. He enjoyed the liesure of elite and peaceful nature of poor. His interactive potential is quite apparent as the man listens to him for many hours.
He is full of praise of Amsterdam, where he feels home. He is a kind of fan of it because it is quite less modern than major hub of Europe and he feels a calmness. He appreciates the middle-class populace, though he knows there is imagination and art activity. He called Amsterdam a fascinating city which he cannot forget. On the other hand, he considers Paris a dull city, even though there is much hustle bustle. Despite the fact, Paris is a big city with so much to cherish, he sees them doing nothing than fornication and creating ideas.
By deliberation Camus creates a kind of ambiguity about cities so to convey his philosophy of life through contrasting concept by the protagonist. The people of Amsterdam have dreams_ daydreams_ which have fooled them. They move with their bicycle like barebokes and know nothing than going to religious congregations. There is complete rejection of outsiders in as they betrayed with crimes, if looked closely there is darkness nothing else.
Jean is full of praise of himself. He says he is bold, confident and built up right like a rugby player. He boasts to be liked to almost everyone he meets. Jean shares the tales of his fortune that he has acquired by all himself. He, with a sense of pride, narrates the stories of his achievements and the soft heart he had of the deprived ones. He helps everyone alike: orphans, nobles, criminals, innocent or anyone who sought his help, since everyone has an interesting story to him. He gives proof if his integrity by telling he had never given bribe or has dome flattery of any journalist to gain their favor nor the friendship of civil servants who might have been of any kind of help.
Jean favours manners as they guarantee social acceptance and a sense of delight to the man himself. He calls the act of giving alms sacred and following social mores a noble deed, giving your bus seat to an elderly and helping a blind the cross the road. Philanthropy gives a sense of satisfaction that he does both for public and private causes. He takes this a selfish act though.