You have no need to conform and squash your square peg in to that round hole anymore. In a ‘madhouse’ it is normal to be yourself because it is expected. If one day I could get out of here, I would allow myself to be mad, because everyone is, indeed, the maddest are the ones who don’t know they’re mad, but keep repeating what others tell them to.’ I wanted to see the main square in Ljubljana again, to feel hatred and love, despair and tedium, all those simple, foolish things that make up everyday life, but which give pleasure to your existence. Look at me, I was beginning to enjoy the sun again, the mountains, even life’s problems, I was beginning to accept that the meaninglessness of life was no one’s fault but mine. ‘No one should let themselves get used to anything, Eduard. She is talking to Eduard one night while he waits for her to play the piano. I think this passage pretty much sums up Veronika’s feelings about this as she comes to terms with the idea that she is now dying slowly. It really talks about the constriction of following the herd to the detriment of your own personality and needs about cramming that square peg in to that round hole and the damage that does to a mind.
The discussion centres around how we look at life, what we make of it and our time living it. Mari has the most influence on Veronika’s thinking during her last week and in return Veronika’s situation impacts profoundly on these three people. Each of these individuals has something to teach Veronika about the state of life and a way of viewing what life is about. She meets Zedka who has been in Villete for depression, Mari who suffers from panic attacks and Eduard who is a young schizophrenic. The remainder of the novel follows her last week in Villete and her interactions with some of the other inmates. Not only does she find herself in this hospital, but she also finds that she has damaged her heart with her suicide attempt and will die within the week. Unfortunately for Veronika her attempt fails and she wakes in Villete, “the famous and much-feared lunatic asylum”. Her preference is by overdosing on sleeping pills, which she takes one day in her rented room in a convent. She decides, in quite an organised way, to end her life.
She is not, however, happy with this life. Veronika is loved by her parents, she has a steady job as a librarian and has had a string of boyfriends. The novel is set in Ljubljana, Slovenia and the eponymous Veronkia is a beautiful young woman who seemingly should have the world at her feet. This is my second Paulo Coelho book after reading The Devil and Miss Prym a couple of years ago.
Book # 90 Reviewer: Ms Oh Waily (first published January 2014)
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