* Albert Camus' 'The Plague' - the narrator's tone. The tone in Camus' The Plague is interesting isn't it? Somewhat that of an amateur historian, the tone of the narrator is well suited to one of the things Camus is doing, surely. Throughout the whole book, whenever the narrative arrives at a suitable occasion, Camus writes an observation of Man.
The test of course is not whether the observations are something brand new - surely that's left to non-fiction isn't it? - the test is whether they are trite or something better than that. Are they something worth repeating, but worth repeating more articulately than is heard in the word-poverty of common conversation? And surely the narrator's tone fits very nicely?
* Having said that - there is something that might not be in any of the non-fiction periodicals: the importance of 4:00 a.m. When dwelling on an unrequited love, or a lost love, or as in the case of The Plague an exiled love - 4:00 a.m. is the time to do it. It is safe to imagine what she is doing at 4:00 a.m. The odds are high that she is not thrilled by the company of another; not preoccupied with something that is not you. The odds are high that she is asleep - and that is a picture which is safe.
'. . . at that hour, even if the night has been a night of betrayal, one is asleep. Yes, everyone sleeps at that hour, and this is reassuring, since the great longing of an unquiet heart is to possess constantly and consciously the loved one . . .'
* The Plague is one of those novels that has through no fault of its own, offered itself up to tedious 'imaginative' interpretations, all equally compelling, and of course that is always the problem with interpretations guessed-at rather than stated by the author.
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