I cared for Meursault (I had to look up his name, that says a lot about my feelings for this book) lesser than he cared for the rest of the world. Our "protagonist" here is entirely apathetic and does whatever he feels like without having the slightest concern for what the people around him feel. I'm all for you shouldn't force yourself to live and behave according to societal norms but that doesn't mean you can act like you live in a solitary world. I lost it the minute he wrote that letter for his neighbor. I feel nothing but pity for his "girlfriend" Marie, not sure what she found as a redeeming quality in this guy. At some level it is important to be able to express empathy towards those around you and even otherwise it does not give you the right to harm or distort someone else's life. That synopsis is extremely misleading, he wasn't pulled into a murder by chance, he committed the murder. I understand that this book does put forward a lot of philosophical questions about life, but this book is absolutely a no for me.