Books - Veronika decides to die

Someone once told me that in every 2 teenagers, one would have flirted with the thought of suicide. I concur because believe it or not, at one stage of my life, I too had this niggling urge to take the easy way out from facing the future & challenges of adulthood, with perhaps some shortcut to death like jumping off a top floor of a building …

While most people would be quick to dismiss the fragility of youth ego & esteem … who would have thought that the thought crossed the stronger & prominent individuals more than the lesser mortals?

Such is the intriguing take of ‘Veronika decides to die’ … another poetic canvas by Coelho.

As the paperback cover aptly entices you …

“24 year old Veronika seems to have everything – youth and beauty, boyfriends and a loving family, a fulfilling job. But something is missing in her life. So, one cold November morning, Veronika decides to die. She takes a handful of sleeping pills, expecting never to wake up”


Coelho suggests that the more accomplished youth, blessed with many talents, achievements & clout suffer more of depression that they’ve got everything & there’s nothing more worth living … for it’s already the pinnacle of their life. The fear of failure in later part drives the uncertainty & depression suggesting that the time has come to end it all … at the top. And this mentality is what of Veronika, the Slovenian rising star in her own right.

Fate had arranged a strange twist to her decision & rightly so as she’s definitely not the holder of her own destiny … she’s been dealt with the joker in the pack … and voila …

She awakes from a coma, finding out that she has 1 week left to live … and in all places, a mental hospital. The irony? The 1st thing she thought of when she woke up from the coma was that she thought her suicide had failed & she could just walk back straight into her life.

No. She had a few days left.

She thought she could just accomplish every small thing she always wanted to do. No. She was in the asylum.

She thought she could meet the same people who were so full of zest for life, giving her the time of her life for the remaining days. No. she’s in an asylum where most people just want to end their meaningless lives.

Who?

The lawyer who suffered depression. The control freak housewife. The despairing son of a Slovenian diplomat who wanted to pursue a forbidden life of artistry.

This may be Coelho’s most ironic work & Veronika is the tragic heroine who walks the trampoline separating hope, future & aspiration on one side & despair, angst & depression on the other. In perhaps the most appropriate setting, the post communist Yugoslavia state of Slovenia platforms people struggling to cope with freedom of expression & in this case, it’s strongly about expression of madness (or should it be really non-conformism?).



The paradox of this tale is that while life bears despair ... despair in turn bears hope.


Can’t make up what I’m saying? Fair enough, the book bears so many perspectives & interpretations, but for sure it will evoke questions about life and perhaps this is Coelho’s best gift to lost youth. Worth reading & to share because it’s eerily real.


Crazy people always claim that they are not crazy. Normal people will always claim that they are crazy.

Ps. reading this book brings back memories of a sweet girl I knew in Slovakia ... oh I wonder how Veron is doing now?