I DON'T WANT TO DIE, I'M OBLIVIOUS TO LIFE.
I can't relate to the protagonist in her quest for death because her beloved country Slovenia is as anonimous as the country's capital, Ljubuljana since i live in a country well known for its culture, brave heroes and other time for its poverty, economic crisis and extremisim.
i can't relate to the protagonist also because she is a young, pretty girl of 24 while i'm an average looking chubby girl with barely a trace of partner in my life, even at 20.
I can, however, relate to the protagonist because we have both desired one thing in life: death.
Here, it's yet an other fact that i can't relate to the protagonist because she did have the audacity to overdose herself since i could never dare kill myself.
"Veronika decides to die" is no less than an insight to life. An aphoristic insight to how life's meant to be played like your favourite game and not just endured like the pain you want to totally get rid of. But sometimes, it takes dying to realise how living feels like.
Paulo Coelho deserves all the accolade and approbation not only for drawing such intricately descriptive pictures using words but also questioning life and divinity at so many different levels in so many different ways.
A girl of 24 having all that's to make life enjoyable and bearable concludes she wants to die. No one needs a reason to die; she wanted to die because she just felt like whereas, to live, a perpetual reason is required. Dying, hence, in all sense is easy while it is living that demands the real courage. Veronika is one of the luckiests on this planet; she was not only offered a realization of what there is that she can live for but also a chance to live for those very things!
So what is there that she can live for? She can live for the view of small square in Ljubljana, outside her window. She can continue to tell the magazine writers about her country Solvenia, which is unbeknown. But she decides to leave a suicide note for the purpose. No one will ever take that note serious.
What place on this planet brings you closest to life? After reading this book, i won't say icy mountains, sparkling desert, lush greenery, lavish waterfalls or idyllic clouds. i now believe it is the ugliest things that make you realise how beautiful life is. As ugly as a mundane routine, white walls, early bedtimes and ever ready tranquilizers of a mental hospital. A mental hospital: Villete.
A book focusing on a suicide attempt by a girl-for reason apparent-she had convinced herself she wasn't happy also includes accounts of a schizophernic finding meaning in this world and trying to settle somewhere between the world he lives in and the world his fellow inmates inhabit, Eduard. His story raises monotonous yet genuine questions in my mind: Why is passion so underrated? Was it his love for painting that made him end up in Villete? Is it the excessive lucubration that makes one a madman? Should one really try to find meaning in something as meaningless as life? Eduard is the answer to all these questions. A leg fracture led him to the hospital where he found a book and lost himself to the book. Or maybe discovered a new self he wasn't acquainted with. Either way, a schizophernic belongs to Villete and his family who claimed to love and adore him all these years, made sure of it.
Eduard's love for listening to Veronika playing him piano opened realms of realization on both the individals: in former hancker of a new world while the latter's quest for life in thirst of death.
Zenith, a "happily" married lawyer excellently balancing professional success with personal peace might know how to twist words and analyse facts to her benefit but hardly does she know the secret to life is being happy. Not happily married, not happily successful. Just happy. Heart directs you to what you need and not what you want. Depression is the ultimate result and Zenith in effect, suffers from extreme depression. Life, in her example, ignited life. Life enticed, life provoked, life gave birth to, life.
A life that results from helping poor people, being occupied not with paperwork and screens but with sentiments and plights. Needs that can be fulfilled. Zenith is a character we all can relate to. We might assume we are good, but our heart always knows what is wrong. Run for your heart before it's too late is what Zenith screams to the readers.
As much as this world is full of people facing atrocities, it is also full of people committing them. Dr. Igor is an example. All that a reader journeys through in the book is a plot initially set by Dr. Igor. Might be a gigantic favor in disguise!
So what again, is there that Veronika can live for? For conquering her fears. An expression of illicit desires in front of Eduard leads her to realise that the pain of aboding our fears is mightier than the reluctance of facing them. Fear of people. Fear of being called"mad". Only in a mental hospital you ruminate over madness. Over who's mad and what makes one mad? Why such words like "lunatic" exist? What does madness have to do with a thing as fascinating as the moon when the last thing one wants to be related to is in fact, madness? Just do things you want to do. Living in a mental hospital is far easier than living in rest of the world with all "sane" people because in Villete, no one is going to admonish you, direct you and instruct you for doing things "your" way because, after all, you're mad. Free. Only mad are allowed to be themselves rest run a marathon of sanity. The book poses a question among numerous others: isn't it better off, being mad?
The story time and again mocks at the wise, the sober and their dogma. It makes mention of how ridiculous it is to claim that one knows what they are doing and what they want from life.
It's beautiful how this talented and ever living author portrays the boredom of doing a cascade of reccurent things all life which accelerates the drive towards death. Being insane is daring, it takes a toll on everything to be not-so-sober enough to be yourself. And eventually, to be called mad.
"Veronika decides to die" doesn't go without articulating the extent of inhumanity towards the "mad". Villete serves to be the perfect example of how a madman doesn't deserve the fundamental human right of being free in his speech. Tranquilizers. Shut down.
Veronika goes on to be herself. She gets angry when she wants to; she slaps an old man when she's angry, and she sleeps with someone she's attracted to, life's never seen easier to her. She only has a few days of being alive due to the severe heartache she suffered as a result of the overdose. If she's herself during these days, it won't cost much. She plays the piano, looks at the sky, talks about life and does whatever she wants to. She feels alive now that she's close to death.
Author's poetic references don't go unnoticed. They add to the charm this book enthralls the reader with. Paulo is famous for his questions on religious dogma and doesn't miss the chance to defend Lucifer in his efforts to do what god had already commanded of him and appreciates how he's endured the constant vilifying by human race so far...
Divulsions akin to these are valiant to be made especially to a reader who adheres to the conventional setting of beliefs and fails to draw a fineline between two Fs of Faith and Fact. But, it is also not unnoticed and unfelt that Paulo's approach to life can, in many ways, be rendered unkempt and barbarious. A life strolling on tracks of inconsistency, under an uncertain sky, in shadow of lurking disacknowledgement with the "desires" and "wishes" as only propelling forces. This, in itself, is quite a quandry.
If we come to think of the references Coelho makes as to how uninteresting this world is, because all we do is the same everyday. How mundane the sense of normalcy is, how alluring is the idea of being the aberrant. Odd. Mad? we shall realize the efficacy he employs "normalizing" the abnormal because Paulo's audacity to keep on questioning the sanity we are obliged to exercise is commendable.
The storyline doesn't miss to impress any of the readers. Doctor who treats Veronika and informs her about the brutal heartfailure anticipated turns out to be lying all this time. Exercising his selfish motives, he just utlizied Veronika's plights as an opportunity to test his drugs and results bring him to the conclusion: I DON'T WANT TO DIE, I AM OBLIVIOUS TO LIFE.