Review: Veronika Decides to Die

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
My rating: 0 of 5 stars


All of us, in one way or the other, are mad.

Madness.

What exactly is this madness?

How can we differentiate people who are mad, from the ones who are not mad?

How can we endeavour to define who is crazier than whom?

And what fallacy is there, if at all, in being mad and in going crazy in our life?

And if there isn’t any, then why are we humans so afraid to be crazy and different?

Why are we so eager to lean upon the shoulders of security, relationships & things like that, in order to feel safe, secure and loved in life?

If you wouldn’t have to think about what other people will think of you, then would you still resist following the way of your true madness?

For, it is only when we eat the fruit of good and evil, is that we start hiding our own unique insanities, and craziness. But aren’t these also the very qualities that make us uniquely different from the rest of the people?

Perhaps, one word will sum it up.

Fear.

Fear is the root of all this.

Mari, a character in this novel, says that, we humans have turned almost every emotion we feel into one particular emotion. That is, fear.

This woman Mari is depicted in the novel as someone who, after losing everything in her life including her job as a lawyer, her husband, her children and her own will to participate in life, is now living in a mental hospital, but is shaken awake by the arrival of this young girl named Veronica.

And so are the other members of the hospital.

Veronica, who is the latest newcomer in the hospital, is a crazy woman who, despite her own wish to surmount into the lap of death, turns out to be a medium that reignites the will of these madmen to join the everyday life of the world outside the wall of the asylum. And just the same way as this young girl inspires these people to live again, this novel by Paulo Coelho too is an inspiration for anyone who wishes to unplug from sleepwalking in their life and, to sit back and rethink what they’re doing with this one precious life they have received.

Picturized in the setting of this mental hospital, aka asylum called ‘Villete’, this novel has been written in a way that will evoke all those buried dreams and desires for adventure that you may have within your heart…

As the title of the novel also suggests, the book is mostly about a girl named Veronica, who is keen to end her life because her mind tells her that her life is meaningless and that all her days are just the same and that, it is wise to die at this time when she is sane and healthy enough to do so. She doesn’t want the dangers of an adventurous life because she is too comfortable in her shell of security & everyday routine.

The storyline of this novel is centered around this character of Veronica, and her attempt to end her life. However, if you will read the book and look at it in another way, you’d see that the story is not really about her wish to die, but about her wish to go on an adventure of transformation. Its not only about endings but also about new beginnings.

As she thinks later on in the story, that if this Veronica hadn’t had the hopelessness and powerlessness to drive her to want to die, and thereupon, to be taken into this madmen’s place, then she wouldn’t have been able to get in touch with other Veronicas living inside her soul either.

“Veronica hated everything, but mainly she hated the way she had lived her life, never bothering to discover the hundreds of other Veronicas who lived inside her and who were interesting, crazy, curious, brave, bold.”

But overall, the story of this woman is a gateway into the garden of our own minds, where we keep staring at the garden wall and at the sunrises & sunsets emerging and settling like shadows in the backdrop of high-towering mountains; thinking sometimes that the wall is too high to escape, or that it is too early or too late to change; or that what will people think if only you do the things that bring you joy. And a thousand reasons like that. .

Despite gaining back her will to survive and desire to live again, Veronica finds herself in an utter conflict on how to spend these last few days of her life, because, apparently, the doctor tells her that the pills she took to end her life has damaged her heart to an irreversible extent. And so, while she has gained her soul, she is now at the edge of losing this human life. So, she vows to herself to allow herself to let go of all pretense, and to be as bad as she could be.

She slaps a man inside the hospital. She connects with her long-buried passion for playing piano. She ends up falling in love with a boy who is a schizophrenic and hence, is another member staying in Villete. Every day, she plays piano for this boy who appears to enjoy it immensely, but owing to his schizophrenia, he doesn’t react or talk to her. She also dances unclothed with this boy present as her statuesque witness. Then she allows herself to feel the intense hatred repressed inside her towards everybody she had ever loved. On the estimated day of her predicted death, she flees from the hospital, screams & laughs in a restaurant to the top of her voice, getting thrown out of there by the restaurant’s manager. She drinks bottle after bottle of wine and lands in the valley of a ruined castle flaked with snow.

Meanwhile, the doctor heading the hospital is depicted to be a psychiatrist who, in addition to treating the hospital’s members, is also carrying out a research on something called as ‘Vitriol’, which is kind of a bitterness or a poison that seeps inside a human organism once it grows into an adult member of the society. The arrival of Veronica doesn’t only act as a medium of rekindling other madmen’s hearts, but also turns out to be an instrument giving his research an interesting dimension. Veronica’s case offers him the evidence that the only cure which can totally remove this poison called “Vitriol” or “bitterness” from a human organism, is, an awareness of life.

Awareness of life, which also marks the central theme of this novel, overall.

As for the girl Veronica, well, whether she died in the end or not, is not the main thing, but till the time she lived, she was alive, that is!

To wrap it up, I like to say that I immensely enjoyed reading the novel. As always, the writing of Paulo Coelho reflects a refreshing & inspirational feel. The moment you read it, it causes you to pause, take a deep breath and do some self-reflections.

This novel is a masterpiece of creative writing, which, pats on your shoulder and asks you, hey, so, are you going to allow yourself to be mad and crazy, or are you going to remain afraid of what people will think about you and pretend that you’re not mad?

And all things non compos mentis in a human life!

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