Veronika Decides To Die, by Paulo Coelho
I found this book at the oft-mentioned Normal's bookstore on 31st and Greenmount here in Baltimore. Obviously, the title captured me and was the first book I carried around, surviving every pause to re-evaluate my pile. Is it my current bout of depression that saved this one from the shelf? Is it the fact that despite such a decision made in the first page of the novel, a hundred or so pages still followed? Whatever it was that made me bring it home, I'm glad that I did. Veronika is 24 years old and for no reason other than the chance to break the monotony of life, she decides to kill herself by overdosing on sleeping pills. Knowing she won't become unconscious right away, she grabbed a magazine to read while she waits. She comes upon an article that asks, in the first line, "Where is Slovenia?" Veronika is from Slovenia, and here she is, in the capital city, killing herself--and yet people in the world don't know where it is! She then decides that she'll write a letter to the magazine in response to this question. Some will think it her suicide note; some will overlook it.
Her suicide fails and she wakes in a mental hospital. Disappointed at her inability to take her own life, she is somewhat shocked to learn that she has damaged her heart sufficiently in her failed suicide attempt that she has only 5 to 7 more days to live. What to do in those 7 days? Certainly not change her mind! But staying still and waiting for the time to come is a lot harder than she thinks.
After I read this book, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I did some very vague research on the author. I left each website feeling he was a motivational speaker. I wished I hadn't looked up anything, because it gave Veronika Decides To Die a cheesy element that I hadn't sensed before. I laughed out loud while I read it, I pondered it's thoughts, and I wondered: if I were to die in 5 days, what would I want to do that I can't do today because the world will call me crazy? Well... it's actually a hard list to come up with. I'd want to go to an ocean and walk into it naked. I'd want to hang upside down from a tree and hope a handsome, true-love-for-a-day man walked opposite and kissed me. I'd want to sing poetry and write novels while a scribe followed behind me as I flounce through Sounds of Music-like hills. I want to kiss strangers. I want to pet a pig. I want to sit on top of a billboard. I want to paint a picture. I want to lie down and rest and enjoy the moment in which I realize: tomorrow, I don't have to go to work.
A quick snippet:
"I'm going to tell you a story," said Zedka. "A powerful wizard, who wanted to destroy an entire kingdom, placed a magic potion in the well from which all the inhabitants drank. Whoever drinks that water would go mad.
"The following morning, the whole population drank from the well and they all went mad, apart from the king and his family, who had a well set aside for them alone, which the magician had not managed to poison. The king was worried and tried to control the population by issuing a series of edicts governing security and public health. The policemen and inspectors, however, had also drunk the poisoned water, and they thought the king's decisions were absurd and resolved to take no notice of them.
"When the inhabitants of the kingdom heard these decrees, they became convinced that the king had gone mad and was now giving nonsensical orders. They marched on the castle and called for his abdication.
"In despair the king prepared to step down from the throne, but the queen stopped him, saying 'Let us go and drink from the communal well. Then we will be the same as them.'
"And that was what they did: The king and the queen drank the water of madness and immediately began talking nonsense. Their subjects repented at once; now that the king was displaying such wisdom, why not allow him to continue ruling the country?
"The country continued to live in peace, although its inhabitants behaved very differently from those of its neighbors. And the king was able to govern until the end of his days."
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