Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemption
CDN$ 8.27
Paulo Decides to Retire - Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1947, has been awarded France s Legion d Honneur, Italy s Grinzane Cavour and was inducted into the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 2002. Veronika Decides to Die is his twelfth book and was first published in 1998. The story begins in late 1997 and follows the story of Veronika - a twenty four year old woman living in Slovenia. The book begins with her attempted suicide : however, having overdosed on tranquilisers, she is discovered in time and taken to hospital before she dies. The hospital in question is Vilette - a well known asylum in Ljubljana. Although she has survived, she is told - due to the damage the tranquilisers have done to her heart - she only has about a week to live. Having always kept herself firmly under control, Veronika finds herself broadening her range of experiences and feelings, and gradually comes to see her life as something worth living. Her arrival in Vilette also has an impact on some of the asylum s other patients - specifically, Eduard (a schizophrenic), Zedka (who suffers from depression) and Mari (who suffers from panic attacks). This is an absolutely awful book : rather than beautiful, poetic or inspiring, I ve never found writing so bland. Despite her situation, Coelho finds himself incapable of establishing any empathy with or sympathy for Veronika. In fact, I even think he wrote about the wrong character - Zedka s story, in the hands of an author up to the task, is a story I d rather have heard. Coelho s decision to include himself in the story stank of ego, and the way that he wrote that section (Paulo Coelho wanted to know all the details of what had happened rather than I wanted to know all the details of what had happened) was really irritating. The only apparent hobby the patients had - a solitary pastime known to some as merchant banking - was given too high a profile : Veronika s activities on this front were irrelevant and did nothing to help the story. Then again, Coelho has spent some time in an asylum as a patient - perhaps he knows something I don t. Unfortunately, he just doesn t seem capable of putting what he knows into words : avoid this book at all costs.
WOW - what an amazing novel coming from a guy who reads only when he must (for school). i hate books but i love this one and it started me reading. what an amazing storyline, paulo coelho is such an amazing writer that i have started to read the aclchmst, i would recomend this to every1.
THE MEANING OF LIFE... - Is always unfair, to describe the plot of a book, beacause if someone wants to read it, well they don t want to know the spice of the writing, Veronikas decides to die, it s a book that will leave you with a teaching lesson, on how we don t live our life at the maximun, and we takes some things for granted. This masterpiece will make you think, a nice a book from a fine Brazilian writer. A most have to any lover of drama and eye opener plays.
Veronika decides t die - Yesterday I read the Book Veronika Decides to die by Paulo Coelho, It was surprisingly gripping. The narrative style of the book is so simple and smooth. The way in which the author narrate the incidents in the book so clear and griping, it never let u keep the book down.
Waste of time - I picked up this book thinking it would provide insight into suicide and asylums. I was disappointed. What I learned was that Coelho knows too little about women to write from the point of view of one. He also knows little about suicidals. Veronika shows little emotion and the scene with the orgasm is so obviously written by a man. There is little for the reader to identify with, because the main character has nothing to offer.The ending had a twist, and twists can be quite clever but this one seemed to me as more of a cop out for the author. There is a moral to the story, but the presentation is unoriginal. I can think of a movie (",My Life Without Me",), an episode of tv show (",The Simpsons",), and a short story by Nancy Kincaid that carry the same moral with the very same worn out story, and I m sure there are more that predate Coelho s work by decades. The only difference is that Veronika tried to take her own life and the characters of the former three examples were told that they were terminally ill. In the end it doesn t seem to matter that Veronika tried to commit suicide or not because the story becomes the same as all the rest.