The Stranger by Albert Camus was by far the best novel out of the three. Bluntly put, it was an ice cold soda to wash down the medicine that was Their Eyes Were Watching God. I believe there were several literary elements that made this catapulted this novel to the top of the list, but my general impression of the novel was completely independent of them. I find the true value of this novel to be in the character Meursault, who may be the most distant protagonist of any story to an average reader. This distance, and Camus choice to hide his past which may influence his motivation created an alien virtually no one could relate to. Traditionally I would say that this makes a book worthless, but Camus portrayed Meursault in a way that made him interesting to the reader and made the reader ponder throughout the novel why he did what he did. I found the character of Meursault to be very similar to Michael Corleone of The Godfather, which allowed me to make some connections to another character if not myself.
I believe the primary literary value of The Stranger exists in its utter lack of description of the character of Meursault. Ultimately I think all humans strive to be like Meursault; careless, not bothered by earthly worries, and independent. Meursault represents what all humans were before they "evolved": animals. Camus took a satirical tone and suggested that the evolution of humans into technology was actually reverse evolution; by creating a more sophisticated society, we attached more sophisticated problems.
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