Damn, I thought Albert Camus was good! I read The Stranger around two years ago and absolutely loved it, so of course I thought I should read more Camus. I really expected Exile and the Kingdom to be good, but it was such a slog. It took me two weeks to ge through and I didn't even finish it. Normally I try to complete a book before forming any concrete opinions on it, but by the tinme I got to the last story I was tired and disappointed.

Exile and the Kingdom is comprised of six short stories with similar themes. Normally I enjoy that sort of thing, but it didn't really work here. Individually, I enjoyed most of the stories, but many of them were just tiring to read, even the ones I liked. They didn't really invoke any strong reaction or emotion and I struggled to immerse myself- issues I didn't face with The Stranger. I know it's not wise to compare two books, but one can't help but be disappointed when going from a stunning piece of writing to a mediocre one by the same author. I feel like this could have been so much more.

As Camus tends to be, this got absurdly racist in a few instances. I feel like I would have enjoyed the story The Renegade more if it wasn't englufed by really weird ideas about indigenous Africans. The final story, the one I didn't finish, seemed to have white savior-y undertones- at least from the few pages I read. The other stories were far less overtly racist and were just Camus' usual disdain towards Arabs; so, not surprising, but still disappointing.

I wish I had more to say about this. It didn't really leave that big of an impact on me. Maybe I'll reread it in a few years and see if I enjoy it then. I plan on reading A Happy Death soon, so hopefully that will improve my opinion on Camus again.

2/5. It just wasn't for me, I think.