VERONICA DECIDES TO DIE BOOK REVIEW

Book: - Veronica decides to die

Author: - Paulo Coelho

Original Publication: - Veronica decides to die book review

Book: - Veronica decides to die

Author: - Paulo Coelho

Original Publication: - 1998

Translation edition: - 23 May 2006

Publication: - Harper One

Genre: -Fiction/Philosophy

Review by: - Mahima Shreshtha

Paulo Coelho wrote this story inspired by his own life. This is a story of a woman who was admitted to an asylum after she attempted to kill herself. Paulo Coelho was also admitted to a mental hospital by his parents and that too three times when he said that he wanted to become an artist. As in Brazil at that time being an artist was considered to be a way of pushing oneself towards poverty. That was the time he promised himself that he would surely write about this but after his parents were dead because he didn’t want to hurt their sentiments.

Summary: 

Veronica, a woman living in Ljubljana, Slovenia, decides to commit suicide. Even though she was happy in her life, she had loving friends, caring family, she was even good looking, everything a person could want in their life. Yet she decided to kill herself by overdosing sleeping pills. While she was waiting for death, she came across an article in a magazine where the first question was, where is Slovenia? And she decided to write a letter to the magazine before dying and that she thought would be her suicide note and she was excited thinking about the controversy that would take place after she was dead that how a girl killed herself because no one knew about her country. Read this uncommon story of a common girl with some extraordinary yet conventional thoughts.

Plot: -

It was the middle of the day when Veronica decided she will take sleeping pills. She had decided to take the pills one by one as she always wanted to have the option if she had some second thoughts about dying. When she was done taking the pills while she was waiting to die she thought to read an article in a magazine whose first question says Where is Slovenia? And that gave a sudden strike to her mind that she will write a letter to the magazine and that would be her suicide note, it made her excited thinking about the controversy that would take place that a woman killed herself because no one knew about her country. And after a while she was thinking of all these stuff she started feeling nauseous and she fainted.

When she opened her eyes she was shocked and dejected at the moment as she was told that she was in Villete, a mental asylum. But she is not crazy, that was the first thing she said. Everyone here says the same was the reply she got. She got to know there that the sleeping pills have affected her heart and she would die soon. She was happy to hear that, as this was what she wanted. In the mental asylum she didn’t want to connect to people as she doesn’t want to make memories there, all she wanted was to die ASAP. There she developed feelings like insecurities, fear, hatred, etc. which she had never allowed herself to feel.

Read this story of Veronica, a so called insane girl who tried to kill herself to fill the void inside her that she created herself.

Conclusion: - 

What is being insane? Why do we learn the importance of life only when we are losing it? Why is it important for us to let us feel different emotions and why growth is important in our life?

These are some of the questions that the writer had tried to answer in his book.   

When I started reading this book it was pretty obvious from the title that this book was about discovering oneself on the journey to death but the concept of mental asylum added another punch to the story.

The writer had tried to change our perception about insane people by exploring Veronica’s life. The only problem in Veronica’s life was she didn’t have any growth in her life. It was the same daily routine. But at some point or other Veronica herself has chosen that way of living.  That was the reason I personally never felt solace for her. Instead of accepting the tempting offer by the newly setup company she decided to take the job at the library.

She wanted to live a settled life and ended up living an unsettled one. We often confuse settlement with stagnancy.  That’s what Veronica did. The time when she decided to kill herself she didn’t have any reason for it. All the excuses she gave sounds vague to me. First she said she wanted to commit suicide because she has same routine in her life and second one was that there is a lot wrong going with the world and she can’t do anything to change it.

The fact that we don’t try is what makes us insane. But there is another character Zedka whom Veronica met in the asylum, her story completely contradicts the former statement, she was in depression because she tried way too much. So changing the statement I would say, The fact that we don’t try and the fact that we don’t know when to stop trying or when to let go makes us insane.

The book also mentions some people who were mentally cured but they didn’t leave the asylum as that was a place where they could be themselves without people judging them. It was an escape from the real world for them.

I personally didn’t find this story worth reading. I stopped reading this book in the middle. Maybe there is some deeper meaning that I didn’t understand. But giving my opinion I would never prefer such a book. Everything in the book was so confused from the patients in the asylum, the nurses, to the doctor. But obviously the crazy people are supposed to be confusing. The writer has shown a glance of Veronica’s mother in the story and she was also bewildering.

 

The only thing that I loved about this book is it made me more clear that I never want to give up in my life on anything after seeing the confusion of Veronica’s life and that I’ll do all I have to do to make my life lightning.

So at the end I would say either you read this book or not just make sure that your life is full of challenges. There is no perfect time to settle down and stop trying.