The Outer Darkness

The Outer Darkness feels like an homage to Camus, with the aimless journeys of its protagonist resonating with intellectual wanderers and philosophical dabblers alike. Peloso masterfully captures a detached mood through sparse prose and excels when focusing on the novel’s action. However, the narrative tends to bog down during the protagonist’s spiraling thoughts. Yes, some of these philosophical musings are both necessary and insightful, but they sometimes come across as if Peloso is merely a recently converted absurdist who has compiled his reflections on absurdism into a narrative form. That may very well be the case, and that approach isn’t in and of itself a problem, it’s just that, though there is little here to hate, the novel occasionally feels a bit too literal in its execution.