Veronika Decides to Die in Mineola Library's 2012 FALL Reading Challenge

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May 15, 2009 Suzanne Moore rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: spring-challenge-picks, 1001-2006, 1001-2008, 1001-2010, summer-challenge-picks

This book started out depressing, but ended with a hopeful outlook. Veronika should be enjoying her youth, but at 25 years old she thinks that she has done everything important and what happens from then on presents a bleak outlook. So she takes an overdose of pills in attempt to kill herself, but instead is rescued and put in a mental hospital for depression. When she wakes up and realizes that she isn’t dead, she is told that the pills have damaged her heart and she will die within weeks. As s This book started out depressing, but ended with a hopeful outlook. Veronika should be enjoying her youth, but at 25 years old she thinks that she has done everything important and what happens from then on presents a bleak outlook. So she takes an overdose of pills in attempt to kill herself, but instead is rescued and put in a mental hospital for depression. When she wakes up and realizes that she isn’t dead, she is told that the pills have damaged her heart and she will die within weeks. As she makes conversation with other patients, she tries not to become too involved. She doesn’t want to experience feelings and look for reasons to live again. She has decided to die and now it will just take longer than she thought it would.

BUT as quoted in the book: "An awareness of death encourages us to live more intensely." She experiences a revelation and makes a connection with one patient, Eduard that reverses her death wish decision. The irony is her death is eminent, or so she thinks, and now living has more meaning than ever.
*SPOILER* There is a twist in the tale that allows her to live. Her psychiatrist is researching new treatments and her case comes just in time to prove his hypothesis.
In Coelho’s notes on what inspired him to write this novel, I learned that his past experiences as a mental patient played a significant role in understanding depressions and treatments. In fact many of the scenes describing Eduard seem based off of his own life.
One part I thought was provoking was when Eduard mentioned that his parents put him in the institution to fix his mental state and fit their mold. They didn’t want him to be different (an individual). They thought the treatment would make him more rational and accepted by society. But the fact is the history of his hospitalization is exactly what made him stick out and become different than others. For some reason, in their eyes, being different was terrible.
This book allows the reader to reevaluate the importance of life and that each day is precious … not to be wasted.
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Aug 21, 2010 Veronica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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Sep 13, 2011 Lynn rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2102-spring

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Mineola Library's 2012 FALL Reading Challenge