To live or not to live? This is exactly the question that Paulo
Coelho tackles in his novel Veronika
Decides To Die and is perhaps
one of the most important ones that could ever be addressed. The title does
indeed lead us to believe that the novel is melancholy, about death and despair
and not to be attempted by the faint-hearted. However, I found the book to be
the exact opposite, in fact I would go so far as to suggest that anyone who
feels that they have fallen into a rut or has just lost the joy of life should
turn to this book. It is a manual on how to live one’s life and certainly
succeeded in getting me to wake up and see things that I had never seen before.
The story follows not only the young
Veronika on her discovery of the joys of life, but also Eduard the
schizophrenic, Mari an ex-lawyer, the depressed Zedka and Dr Igor on their time
and trials in the Slovenian mental hospital Villette. The variety of individual
stories is an eye-opening experience as it demonstrates just how anyone can
fall into the place that we label ‘madness’. I have always had a fascination
with those who are deemed to be mad and to today’s society they are terrorists,
nomads and serial killers. A taboo subject and a label that no one wants.
Coelho teaches us to see differently, to see these people as human beings in a
way that The Bell Jar or The
Catcher in Rye in their first
person form don’t quite achieve to the same degree.
The only criticism that I could find
within the novel itself is the mention of Paulo Coelho. For me reading is an
escape and the mention of the author in his own novel detracted from the
fictional aspect, but this intrusion only lasted for the first quarter of the
book and afterwards Coelho remains in the background narrating the story. There
is one other criticism that I would like to point out and that is how the book
is categorised. My copy was purchased for me as a gift, but I have since found
the Paulo Coelho section in the bookshop Waterstones and was disappointed to find that it
was in the Spirituality section. This to me seems baffling and a huge hindrance
to the books. Many of Coelho’s novels have become international bestsellers,
but rightly or wrongly there are certain connotations that come with such a
label on a book. Veronika
Decides to Die is spiritual
in the sense that it deals with the bigger questions, but it hardly seems
fitting that a work of fiction, a novel should be placed to something like The Crystal Bible. I have
nothing against books such as these or the people who peruse this section of
the bookshop, but I do feel that this limits the amount of people and the kind
of people who could stumble across this book and could potentially find it to
be one of the most wonderful books that they ever encounter.
Playlist suggestion:
Saint Veronika by Billy Talent
Other useful links:
Rating: ★★★★★
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