A short, easy read about a 20-something-year-old single guy that is a case study in callousness. It may have been viewed as a spicy novel back in the 40s, but its punch has likely weakened over time. Regardless, the novel does put you in a position to think about the indifference of the universe and what meaning life holds. The protagonist’s callousness builds over the course of the novel and is intended to be identified from the opening, but the extreme nature it evolves into was hard to relate to completely. This book is treated like a classic. Perhaps.