just before getting married my future wife recommended this book saying that she appreciated the way ‘the stranger’ thought. i suppose i should be alarmed by this since ‘the stranger’ puts his mother in a home, is willing to marry someone he can’t profess to love and commits a senseless murder. however, it joins my list of books with a great opening: mother died today. or, maybe, yesterday; i can’t be sure. the telegram from the home says: your mother passed away. funeral tomorrow. deep sympathy. which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday. and many of ‘the stranger’s’ perspectives are refreshing. from the author: i’ve often though that had i been compelled to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but gaze up at the patch of sky just overhead, i’d have got used to it by degrees.