"I want to continue being mad, living my life the way I dream it, and not the way other people want it to be."
- Zedka to Veronika
"I want to feel the rain on my face, to smile at any man I feel attracted to, to accept all the coffees men might buy for me. I want to kiss my mother, tell her I love her, weep in her lap, unashamed of showing my feelings, because they were always there even though I hid them."
- Veronika to Dr. Igor
"An awareness of death encourages us to live more intensely."
"An awareness of death encourages us to live more intensely."
In my younger days I remember attempting to read The Alchemist and giving up halfway. Since then I have never attempted to read any of Paulo Coelho's works, as I've always assumed that I'm wouldn't be into books that attempt to convey deep philosophical or motivating ideas. So, when the other day I was scanning through one of my friend's book shelves my choice tended to go elsewhere; but Vishnu Raghav, the bespoken friend, insisted that I read Veronika Decides to Die. I don't quite know why he was so adamant that I read it, but boy! am I glad. So here's me thanking him for his choice of the book for me. Now let's dive into the book.
This story is about a young, pretty and bright 23 year old, Veronika, who has a job, a place to stay, a fair number of boyfriends and everything that gives us an impression of being a fairly good life. But, she is not only unhappy but she also decides to end her life. She has two reasons, that sound profoundly remorseful, to substantiate her decisions. One, that her life is a monotonous trail of events which would only grow worse with time and old-age kicking in. Two, that the whole world was perhaps falling apart and that gave her a sense of "complete powerlessness".
So, Veronika decides to sway into the dreamy arms of death by popping a few sleeping pills; she really seemed to enjoy it. But, her plan fails and she later opens her eyes in a hospital bed, in a mental asylum, where the doctor informs her that her heart was failing her. The doctor tells her that the coma had caused her heart muscles to deteriorate and that she has less than a week to live. The story begins here.
This story here is about Veronika's life in her week long journey towards death. It's her time to re-evaluate her decision, even though she knows it to be futile. After all, what good is to come out of wanting to live when you know that all you have is a week more? But life has other plans for her. Not only is she re-evaluating her position and attitude towards life, she also causes the people around her evaluate their lives. Many residents in the asylum had come to accept their lives in the asylum. She inadvertently causes them to rethink the validity of their lives. This books is about that; about finding hope in life in the face of death, about being "mad" to achieving meaning in life, about being courageous to strive for your dreams and about understanding the value of your life.
Death. I seem to be seeing a lot of it in books these days. It used to be an icy cold, chills-down-your-spine, grim and morbid topic for me. But that changed while I started reading Book Thief. What that book is, is tale for another day. But like many have pointed out earlier in their works, death may not always mean the physical cessation of life. It could have several metaphorical meanings. To me here it means to give up- on your life, your dreams or on all the societal influences that surround you.
All this is what I take away from this story. This book urges me to be hopeful and to find purpose in live to overcome death in all it's metaphoric glory. I'm at a place in life where I'm taking a few chances, courageous ones-bordering on what some might call careless- to follow my dreams. My choices may turn out any way as I don't know what destiny holds for me, but I'll always know that it is what I wanted and what I chose. As they say, the heart wants what the heart wants.
Rating: 4/5 Verdict: If you are feeling low for some reason, then this could raise your spirits and give you that quick boost of ebergy you need. The book is quite a small one to read but is best read all at once. (Click here for my favorite quotes from the book.)
For those of you who are interested, here's the trailer of the movie version of the book, starring Sarrah Michelle Geller as Veronika.
Though I'm particular owning the books that I've loved reading I equally despise wasting money on experimenting with book, i.e books that I'm not sure that I would enjoy. That does not mean that I've
April '14 EBook haul
ever shied away from buying books. I like to think of myself as an economic book buyer. Libraries have helped me stick to my book budget. I have always read books rented from libraries and then decided if I wanted to own them. But lately I've gotten bold and have begun buying books without putting in much thought. Here is my latest book haul.
As you might be aware, I've finished reading Love Story by Erich Segal (click here for review) and I loved it. Hence I need my time to get over Oliver and Jennifer to be grabbing at its sequel, Oliver's Story. But I've promised myself to get there.
I've begun both Servants of the Goddess by Catherine Rubin Kermorgant and Book Thief by Markus Zusak simultaneously. Servants of the Goddess is a book in the non-fiction category. Its a memoir of the author trying to make a BBC documentary on Devdasi system, a practice quite prevalent in yesteryear India. It reads as her journey to find the remains of this system, bordering on prostitution, still practiced in India and its cultural and social implications. Book Thief, on the other hand is a fictional story about a girl and her life in nazi-Germany. The most intriguing aspect of the book is that it's written from Death's point of view.
The fourth and last book, 7 Secrets of Shiva, which is yet to be explored and will be in due course, deals in mythology. It explores the concept of Shiva in Hindu culture. The author Devdutt Pattanaik is one of my favorites in the genre. I've enjoyed both Jaya: An illustrated retelling of Mahabharatha and Sita: An illustrated retelling of Ramayana in equal measures inspite of knowing the mythological stories beforehand. His books are less about the literary value, and more about the content. I've liked the way he entangles fresh, modern and contemporary thought into the classic stories. So his books are always on my list.
These are the only eBooks I've bought in the month of April. Tell me about the ones you bought and how you liked them. So untill next time. Keep reading. Ciao!
Obsessed with love stories, I now wanted to read one of the classics. Love Story made the cut since I'd come across a review of the book on bookgeeks.com (Click here for the review). Promptly I found a copy on Amazon delivered directly to my Kindle and it just stayed there. I was keeping busy trying to strike off books from my TBR pile. And then on this fateful rainy Monday in May I had to make a train journey, and I had decided for Love Story to keep me company.
I am relatively new to the romance genre of books, but I'm thoroughly enjoying this stint. Let me start by saying that I'm not the mushy, hopelessly romantic kind. I like my crime thrillers and my non-fictions alike. But something in me changed since I read The Fault in Our Stars. I've begun to appreciate the genre and I couldn't have asked for anything better than this masterpiece. I run the risk of singing paeans for this book, but can't help it; this could very well be the father of all modern love stories.
Oliver Barrett IV is an all-Ivy Harvardian law student, with a multimillionaire couth upbringing, who hates everything about his upbringing-including his surname and the weight it carries. Jennifer Calliveri, a Radcliffian of Italian-American descent, is a musician in love with her family-with a passion Oliver terms as an 'Italian-Mediterranean' syndrome of paternal love. The cliche of the rich boy and the poor girl falling for each other at first sight ends right there. This story takes off with the unique chemistry between them. I instantly fell in love with the slightly snobbish, yet loving and considerate Jenny. Oliver too is perfectly adorable with all his imperfections. And the moment her dad Phil is introduced you can't help but fall for "the ever affable Mr.Cavilleri."
This is my first Erich Segal book and what I loved about the story is the romance embedded in playful humor and it's frank simplicity in defining love in it's pure sense. I finished the book in 2.5-3 hours flat and I stress that by the time I was done with it I felt like a marshmallow in hot chocolate- all warm and mushy inside. Now I really want to set hands on Oliver's Story, but not without fear. What if I don't like it as much? What if it doesn't live up to my expectations? Fears set aside I will read it soon enough. But before that, I really want to watch the movie Love Story, also written by Erich Segal. (Fun fact: Erich Segal has first written the screenplay of the moview which was turned down. So he was suggetsed to make it into a novel. He then re-wrote it into a novel which also then became a motion picture.) The theme song of this movie, by Francis Lai, has haunted me for years. Listen to it yourself.
So, that's all about the book. You may wonder why I'm not getting into ratings for the book. I couldn't. I can't get myself to rate such a timeless classic that was written way before I was even born.
Verdict: A must read even if you aren't the hopelessly romantic kind, but just someone with a kind heart.
So time to move on to the next book. Keep reading and let me know what new stories you read.Ciao!
As a rule I read the book before watching the movie. It's one of those golden rule I swear by. This is one book that sparkled a myriad of emotions within me. So this is a movie I will be waiting for. But if you haven't read The Fault in Our Stars just go and read it NOW before the movie comes out. The trailer had me swooning!
