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A review by shorshewitch
The Plague by Albert Camus
5.0
Book Review – The Plague by Albert Camus
My Rating: A stupendous 5/5
Had I known my first ever Camus would put me in the depths of morbid speculations about everything that people around me including me seem to believe, I would have prepared for it a little more. Despite it being a translation from the original French work (by Stuart Gilbert), the prose is so fluid it would be almost a blasphemy to say it glided seamlessly, because the tale narrated is so macabre, some details so grisly that they drove every joint in my bones, layers of my skin and very soul to an undefined realm of poignancy.
Oran is just another town – like what you and me live in, invalid in its hustle and bustle, warped relationships, opaque individuals, more wisps of smoke in the air than breaths, shallow emotions, marred with a code which is long forgotten. A city where people live in an inherent state of denial convinced that the only way of living is to make sure they inhale and exhale on time. All the rest has a place either in a trash can or on a perpetual back burner. So when it sees an epidemic approaching, Oran doesn’t wake up until the monster has ravaged it completely with its cruel tentacles. And once it wakes up from its deep slumber, Oran doesn’t have any ways left to escape. Quarantined indefinitely, the town loses its shimmer and drowns into an abyss while the Plague claims individuals in an upward graph. Calamities of this nature birth the most heroic of human beings, but will the heroism mean anything at all while the war-like malady blatantly refuses to bow down?
Camus has raised so many questions in this classic tale of standing tall in the midst of chaos, some of them are utterly mind-boggling and if you are a believer, extremely challenging. Who does one blame when such a calamity strikes? The wrath of God? The sinners? Who decides the sinners? Is a priest justified in consulting a doctor? Isn’t a death penalty to a criminal equal to a murder? The story has been woven through multiple characters each with his own relevance depicting cowardice, revenge, rejection, strength, selflessness and complacence. It is a harrowing truth that a town unites ONLY when faced by calamity while other times simply chooses to remain a place of rude indifference.
This is a must-read for everyone who likes their own beliefs challenged. As for me, it has challenged a few of mine and I am glad that I got a glimpse of things I would have otherwise over-looked.
My Rating: A stupendous 5/5
Had I known my first ever Camus would put me in the depths of morbid speculations about everything that people around me including me seem to believe, I would have prepared for it a little more. Despite it being a translation from the original French work (by Stuart Gilbert), the prose is so fluid it would be almost a blasphemy to say it glided seamlessly, because the tale narrated is so macabre, some details so grisly that they drove every joint in my bones, layers of my skin and very soul to an undefined realm of poignancy.
Oran is just another town – like what you and me live in, invalid in its hustle and bustle, warped relationships, opaque individuals, more wisps of smoke in the air than breaths, shallow emotions, marred with a code which is long forgotten. A city where people live in an inherent state of denial convinced that the only way of living is to make sure they inhale and exhale on time. All the rest has a place either in a trash can or on a perpetual back burner. So when it sees an epidemic approaching, Oran doesn’t wake up until the monster has ravaged it completely with its cruel tentacles. And once it wakes up from its deep slumber, Oran doesn’t have any ways left to escape. Quarantined indefinitely, the town loses its shimmer and drowns into an abyss while the Plague claims individuals in an upward graph. Calamities of this nature birth the most heroic of human beings, but will the heroism mean anything at all while the war-like malady blatantly refuses to bow down?
Camus has raised so many questions in this classic tale of standing tall in the midst of chaos, some of them are utterly mind-boggling and if you are a believer, extremely challenging. Who does one blame when such a calamity strikes? The wrath of God? The sinners? Who decides the sinners? Is a priest justified in consulting a doctor? Isn’t a death penalty to a criminal equal to a murder? The story has been woven through multiple characters each with his own relevance depicting cowardice, revenge, rejection, strength, selflessness and complacence. It is a harrowing truth that a town unites ONLY when faced by calamity while other times simply chooses to remain a place of rude indifference.
This is a must-read for everyone who likes their own beliefs challenged. As for me, it has challenged a few of mine and I am glad that I got a glimpse of things I would have otherwise over-looked.