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Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemption
Автор: Paulo Coelho
Текст читает Fran Tunno
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Twenty-four-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, she takes a handful of sleeping pills expecting never to wake up. But she does – at a mental hospital where she is told that she has only days to live.
Inspired by events in Coelho's own life, Veronika Decides to Die questions the meaning of madness and celebrates individuals who do not fit into patterns society considers to be normal. Bold and illuminating, it is a dazzling portrait of a young woman at the crossroads of despair and liberation, and a poetic, exuberant appreciation of each day as a renewed opportunity.
A HarperAudio production.
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Начать прослушиваниеСведения о книге
Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemption
Автор: Paulo Coelho
Текст читает Fran Tunno
Описание
Twenty-four-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, she takes a handful of sleeping pills expecting never to wake up. But she does – at a mental hospital where she is told that she has only days to live.
Inspired by events in Coelho's own life, Veronika Decides to Die questions the meaning of madness and celebrates individuals who do not fit into patterns society considers to be normal. Bold and illuminating, it is a dazzling portrait of a young woman at the crossroads of despair and liberation, and a poetic, exuberant appreciation of each day as a renewed opportunity.
A HarperAudio production.
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I liked Paulo Coelho's novel "Veronika Decides to Die" more than his more famous book, "The Alchemist," which I thought was so-so. Veronika is a young woman who leads a sort of humdrum life not of her own choosing -- she decides to attempt suicide after realizing things aren't like to get better and will in fact decline as she ages. She ends up in Villette, a mental hospital in Slovenia and meets others who have checked out of society.Coelho had an odd way of inserting himself in the story, but other than that I liked the way it all unfolded, even if the doctor's tactics were pretty transparent from the get-go.
Rating: 4Dit boek behandelt een aantal fundamentele problematieken van de menselijke existentie: heeft het leven zin? En wat is het verschil tussen waanzin en normaliteit? Coelho zet die kwesties neer in de concrete context van een jonge Sloveense vrouw die na een mislukte zelfmoordpoging in een psychiatrische kliniek wordt geplaatst. Interessant dus, en regelmatig geeft Coelho goede voorzetten, maar elke keer weer laat hij de verhaallijn stilvallen om een nieuw personage te introduceren of een andere mijmering te lanceren. En op het einde maakt hij zich er van af met een wel heel goedkoop happy end. Tussendoor laat hij een pseudo-soefi-leraar wat wijsheden debiteren. Ik had hier meer van verwacht.
Rating: 2I loved this book. The mental health system, psychotropic drugs and emotional difficulties are subjects I am well acquainted with, so I felt at easy reading it as I was not swimming in unchartered waters.
I was deciding whether to rate it 4 or 5 stars but once I read the last 4 pages, I knew right away it was a 5 star book for me, throughout the entire book, I never saw the end coming, but was awfully glad it ended as it did.
Rating: 5I was deciding whether to rate it 4 or 5 stars but once I read the last 4 pages, I knew right away it was a 5 star book for me, throughout the entire book, I never saw the end coming, but was awfully glad it ended as it did.
I would have liked this more if I hadn't guessed at the beginning how it would end...
Rating: 3Very bad indeed. Highly not recommended.
Rating: 1excellent!
Rating: 5Dit boek behandelt een aantal fundamentele problematieken van de menselijke existentie: heeft het leven zin? En wat is het verschil tussen waanzin en normaliteit? Coelho zet die kwesties neer in de concrete context van een jonge Sloveense vrouw die na een mislukte zelfmoordpoging in een psychiatrische kliniek wordt geplaatst. Interessant dus, en regelmatig geeft Coelho goede voorzetten, maar elke keer weer laat hij de verhaallijn stilvallen om een nieuw personage te introduceren of een andere mijmering te lanceren. En op het einde maakt hij zich er van af met een wel heel goedkoop happy end. Tussendoor laat hij een pseudo-soefi-leraar wat wijsheden debiteren. Ik had hier meer van verwacht.
Rating: 2Love this book. Makes us think about life and how to live our lives.
Rating: 4Boooring. Full of depressing sanctimonious pap.
Rating: 3This particular book altered between fascinating and boring for me. Some lines made me stop, sit back, and consider and other parts I found myself skimming. I loved the overall idea though of living each day truly believing that it's your last. I also liked the way he used his own experiences to write this out.
Rating: 3Great book learned many thing about psychology and inner soul.
Rating: 5
It was not as captivating as the alchemist. The book felt boring in the first several chapters. It had a great ending though.
Rating: 3
Couldn't make it passed the first chapter. As someone who has attempted suicide the writing was very shallow. Not to discredit any emotions the author may have been feeling while writing this book. But I felt no empathy for this character or the situation
Rating: 2The title character of this book, Veronika, tries to commit suicide through an overdose of pills. The suicide attempt fails, but the pills have caused irreparable damage to her heart and she only has 1 week to live. This knowledge of her imminent death gives Veronika new insight and a different perspective on life. My copy of the book included some interesting information on Paulo Coelho's life. As a young man, he spent several weeks in a mental hospital. He uses this information to frame many of the events of the book and provide a very different viewpoint of how we view and treat the 'insane'. Although the premise of this book was interesting, I am not a huge fan of Coelho. Rather than subtly stating a theme in his books, he tends to shout it out repeatedly. For this novel, the central theme seemed to revolve around how strict rules in our society force people to behave abnormally, but once a person is labeled 'insane', they have the freedom to behave and live as they want.
Rating: 3Story set in Romania of a young girl who decides to commit suicide. She is not successful and is hospitalized for mental illness.
Rating: 4Are the lunatics running the asylum?This is the third Coelho novel that I've read,after The Alchemist and The Devil and Miss Prym,and for me it is the weakest.Now don't get me wrong I love the author's writing style which I find so easy going yet with a deceptive depth,rather I felt that this book lacked any real plot and was more of a parable or perhaps a part of some philosophical debate where the only true madness is to conform. Veronika has never done anything challenging or taken a real risk preferring to live a safe unimaginative life within self-regulated boundaries in both her professional and personal existance. Despite superficially having everything to live for is basically bored with life,so decides to commit suicide. When this fails she is sent to a mental hospital where she is told that she only has days to live thus making her re-evaluate not only her life but the meaning of life.Surrounded by other 'maniacs' she finally begins to see life as a gift and wants to live her final days to the full.Which for the reader means we end up with a debate as to the meanings of life and death,love and hate, madness and sanity.Despite really wanting to I struggled to feel any real empathy towards Veronika and her plight instead finding myself more interested in the other characters in the book lives. In particular I was intrigued by the character of Doctor Igor, the establishment's psychiatrist with his own somewhat warped outlook,who quite frankly seemed to be the only real lunatic in the place.I had pretty well guessed the ending before we got there but didn't feel that was too detrimental to it overall and as such still enjoyed the book, just not as much as the others.Now at only about 190 pages long it is a reasonably quick read so go on judge for yourself it may give you a different outlook on life. You never know.
Rating: 3Told from the heart
Clearly the subject is dear to the author and he celebrates the differences in people that we both enjoy and fear. In this PC climate, the message of this book is so necessary - especially the vitriol thesis. There are so many functionally numb people today, that this book should be dedicated to them. Bravo Paulo! This is a masterpiece.
Rating: 5Clearly the subject is dear to the author and he celebrates the differences in people that we both enjoy and fear. In this PC climate, the message of this book is so necessary - especially the vitriol thesis. There are so many functionally numb people today, that this book should be dedicated to them. Bravo Paulo! This is a masterpiece.
Coelho continues his magic in my life! He weaves a fine tapestry of what it means to be mentally ill here that is spot on, as an individual planning on working in that particular field of social work. One way that he does this is through his characterization of multiple people that could be considered crazy in modern society. These characters show us that maybe these people are not as crazy as we would like to make them out to be. There is a truth that underlies their thinking that we just may not grasp because it is different from the herd mentality.
I loved what was done with this book specifically with the message about living each day. We must learn to live our days for self, but also like they are going to be our last. If you are looking for an inspirational read then this one will speak to your very heart.
Rating: 5I loved what was done with this book specifically with the message about living each day. We must learn to live our days for self, but also like they are going to be our last. If you are looking for an inspirational read then this one will speak to your very heart.
Over ambitious. Paulo attempts to do like with The Alchemist, creating a 'fable' and a 'story' out of modern times but doesn't quite get the same resonance, also tries to tackle things bigger than he is willing to give space to or even try to fully convey other than in his 'mystical' writing.
Rating: 3This is a difficult book to rate. I enjoyed the philosophy and there were quite a few thought-provoking statements about conformity and insanity. One favorite: "That is why embittered people find heroes and madmen a perennial source of fascination, for they have no fear of life or death."
As a novel, the plot was minimal and the very lean prose made it difficult to feel anything for the characters.
Rating: 3As a novel, the plot was minimal and the very lean prose made it difficult to feel anything for the characters.
Veronika Decides to Die tells a simple story: the title character, a young, beautiful woman, is dissatisfied with life and decides to kill herself. She survives her suicide attempt, but at the upscale mental hospital she is admitted to afterward, she is told her heart is damaged and she has only about a week to live. This revelation forces her, and the hospital's other patients as well, to re-evaluate what is important in life. This novel is not a realistic depiction of life in a mental hospital; rather, it is a fable about the human condition. The hospital is a microcosm of the wider world. I enjoyed the novel's straightforward prose, but my overall impression was that the story was not very substantial, and its spiritual insights were not very deep (art, music, and sexual pleasure = good; mindless conformity = bad). The same message could have been delivered, perhaps more effectively, in a short story.
Rating: 3I so disliked this book!,, July 27, 2015This review is from: Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemption (Paperback)Veronika is a young Slovenian woman, attempting suicide. She's not ill or depressed; only, she's realised her life is unremittingly the same every day, and she's going to get old and go downhill. Also, she's powerless to do anything about the bad things going on in the world. Of course, her attempt is unsuccessful and she finds herself in a psychiatric hospital...In the hospital we encounter various other characters, notably schizophrenic Edward, 'The Fraternity', a group who are cured but don't want to leave as they can behave how they want if they're deemed 'mad'. And Dr Igor, who is pursuing a theory on bitterness (or 'Vitriol'), which seems to infect most people...I so disliked this book: it's probably more of a *1.5. I realise that the whole plot and characters are meant to illustrate Coelho's thoughts rather than being believable real-life persons. But the thoughts and ideas are very facile, making me think this is aimed at a teen audience. Coelho includes an implausible sex scene to spice it all up.How the author became so famous is beyond me!
Rating: 2You know how there are just certain things in life that your brain simply cannot comprehend no matter how hard you try? For me, that’s philosophy. Philosophy seems like something that should totally work for me, but the bigger picture, that moment of clarity, of understanding, NEVER comes. I signed up for Philosophy 101 in University and I’m not sure if I had the worst teacher known to man but I walked out less than halfway through the first class. The sole exception to this has been The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet. Say what you want, but that shit is legit. Veronika could take a lesson or two from Pooh Bear.So, Veronika decides to die. That’s not a spoiler, clearly.‘When she had achieved almost everything she wanted in life, she had reached the conclusion that her existence had no meaning, because every day was the same. And she had decided to die.’She decides, over a period of months where she begins collecting sleeping pills, that there is essentially no more point to life because she’s already accomplished everything. So why continue to live it? Veronika takes the pills yet she’s discovered by an unknown individual and wakens to find herself in Villete, the infamous mental hospital. She’s devastated to find that she didn’t succeed in her task but is informed by the doctor that she damaged her heart irreparably and that she has less than a week to live. Initially, this book started off strong and it seemed as if it would be an interesting look into the workings of a mental illness but Paulo Coelho opted to go for a philosophical angle instead which flawed the whole point he was trying to make. Within these short 191 pages we’re introduced to other individuals currently staying at Villete: a woman with acute anxiety and a man with schizophrenia which are all meant to be traits of Coelho himself who was institutionalized when he was young.‘In a world where everyone struggles to survive whatever the cost, how could one judge those people who decide to die? No one can judge. Each person knows the extent of their own suffering, or the total absence of meaning in their lives.’There is much confusion when it comes to the medical aspects of the novel and the even more ridiculous plot twist. In a nutshell, this story is about reveling in our differences, the fact that what society views as “insanity” isn’t necessarily so, and the necessity for finding the beauty in each new day of life. While I understand what Paulo Coelho was intending with this story, taking a serious subject like attempted suicide and giving it a picture perfect (and unrealistic) ending made it all so very contrived.
Rating: 2I have become less and less enamored with Coelho's writing, since I first read The Alchemist many, many years ago. Maybe I have become a bit more cynical or maybe my relationship with spirituality has shifted and matured in a way that doesn't relate to the kinds of messages he shares anymore (it would be interesting to re-read The Alchemist and see if I still relate to it as I once did). All of this is to say that I did not love Veronika Decides to Die, which tells the story of a young, beautiful woman who attempts suicide and is placed in the Villete mental hospital in Slovenia and how her redemption and growth inspires other patients to redeem themselves and find their own ways back into the world. My problem with the story is not so much a rejection of the idea that "normal" is a condition determined by the majoritythat condemns the unique and different as insane, but rather that none of the characters seem to behave as real people. Each character, including many of the patients turn out to be secretly wise old souls, able to spout deep and meaningful philosophy at a moment's notice. These four main patients are just "different" from what society expects them to be, which is why they have settled and become comfortable in the hospital. Although, some of the "real insane" are mentioned in passing, the complicated issues of those dealing with true mental illnesses is not treated well. The main focus of the story is on a more romantic vision of insanity and suicide as something that is just misunderstood, with the idea that if a person can just learn to take risks and live life fully everyday, then they can cure themselves of "insanity." While I agree in the concept of trying to live as fully as possible, here it is presented as such an oversimplification and repeated over and over again to the point that the story becomes dull and the message watered down.There is also a strange meta-moment early in the book in which Coelho inserts himself into the story in order to explain that he chose to write the book due his own experiences of being put in a hospital as a young man. Although this is both true and interesting (his parents thought his entry into the arts was a mental aberration), it felt like an odd distraction from the main story and was something I would have preferred to have seen better described in an author's note. Veronika Decides to Die — not a favorite of mine.
Rating: 3What's "insanity"?This book makes you think about what insanity is.The book explores the experience of a young woman who, having survived a suicide attempt, finds herself in a mental asylum, where she is told irreversible damage has been done to her heart and she will be dead within a week.
It is sad that some people cannot truly love all that life has to offer, until they face death -- as would death's face be the only thing capable of waking up, inside of themselves, the will to live.
Rating: 3An interesting, well written book, although some of the themes are a bit clichy and it's easy to see the direction of the plot early in the book. No real surprises like I'd hoped.
Rating: 4As with all Coehlo, it's some great ideas wrapped up into a shiny little feel-good package that just makes me feel a little dirty for liking it. Does he seem awfully contrived to anyone else?
Rating: 3Pretentious rubbish.
Rating: 1For me this book was about conforming to social norms and how we act and feel in our day to day lives to fit into what society prescribes. Veronika, a librarian (an awesome job I would imagine!), decides to commit suicide but luckily fails and ends up in an institution for the mentally ill. As she is 'treated' by the hospital's head physician she encounters other patients who are all looking for, but seldom finding, their place in the world.
I loved the dialogue and the opportunity that her 'illness' allowed for her to finally find and express her true self. Viewed as an unstable person allowed for her to voice and act out in ways she (and we as 'normal' individuals) would otherwise never have done.
"If one day I could get out of here, I would allow myself to be crazy. Everyone is indeed crazy, but the craziest are the ones who don't know they're crazy; they just keep repeating what others tell them to."
With this (and an on-going experiment by said head physician) Veronika finds love, acceptance and her true voice.
Rating: 5I loved the dialogue and the opportunity that her 'illness' allowed for her to finally find and express her true self. Viewed as an unstable person allowed for her to voice and act out in ways she (and we as 'normal' individuals) would otherwise never have done.
"If one day I could get out of here, I would allow myself to be crazy. Everyone is indeed crazy, but the craziest are the ones who don't know they're crazy; they just keep repeating what others tell them to."
With this (and an on-going experiment by said head physician) Veronika finds love, acceptance and her true voice.
If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, would you live differently? Would you regret the things you did, thinking you shouldn't have done this or that?
And to this, Coelho writes, why wait until you're dying? We're born to die , isn't that the saying? Certainly we'll die, and we don't know when. It could be tomorrow, it could be 50 years later. So why waste our lives? For a book titled as such, it talks a lot about the value of living.
I guess I really like this book because it's full of crazy people, people who don't conform, and I'm a little crazy myself. It's taught me to embrace my madness, to look at every day as if it's different from the day before it, to live like who I am, and how I want it.
When faced by your own mortality, I don't think you have a choice but to live your life to the fullest.
Rating: 5And to this, Coelho writes, why wait until you're dying? We're born to die , isn't that the saying? Certainly we'll die, and we don't know when. It could be tomorrow, it could be 50 years later. So why waste our lives? For a book titled as such, it talks a lot about the value of living.
I guess I really like this book because it's full of crazy people, people who don't conform, and I'm a little crazy myself. It's taught me to embrace my madness, to look at every day as if it's different from the day before it, to live like who I am, and how I want it.
When faced by your own mortality, I don't think you have a choice but to live your life to the fullest.