I just finished reading it, but in French. The description you give here conveys exactly what I think of the book. Many people fail to read between the lines or beyond the simple style in which the story is written. The Stranger raises many philosophical questions and, for the first time, I felt uneasy reading a book. It left me thinking about the unspoken rules of society and how important of a role they can play in our lives. I personally couldn't relate to Meursault's passive, detached attitude, but I understood it. He was dehumanized in his trial because he was a stranger to the tacit norms of society. He was accused of murder but executed for not having cried in his mother's funeral!