Veronica decides to die: A perspective to madness. Book Review.

Book:Veronika Decides to Die
Author: Paulo Coelho
List Price: $24.00
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0060196122
Publisher: HarperCollins

If Paulo Coelho's Alchemist gives us a reason to follow our dreams, Veronica decides to die depicts the consequences of ignoring it. Veronica is what Santiago would have been if he had chosen to become a baker to a shepherd.

The book though full of medical terminology and diversions gives a brilliant perspective to madness. It is set in an asylum called villete where the protagonist Veronica finds herself struggling with the last moments of her life after an abortive suicidal attempt.

Veronica’s last days in the asylum, her congregation with other mentally disturbed people and finally the encounter with her buried desire to be a pianist enlivens her with a wish to live.She chose death because she could not choose her destiny, and without it life became an unbearable torture. She discovers the beauty of life when one follows one’s dream, and it was this beauty with which villete overflowed.

If madness is to live in illusions, one may think what reality is? And here Paulo tells us in the words of one of the characters Dr.Igor: "Reality is whatever the majority deems it to be, not necessary the best or the most logical, but that one has become adapted to the desires of society" Does that mean that the minorities who believe otherwise, who choose to follow their own desires rejecting the expected social standards are mad?

Veronica wishes she were mad if madness is maintaining one’s originality and following one’s belief. With her, we, the readers, realize that what people call madness is nothing but the instinct to follow one’s dream which the so-called sane people give up for the sake of fulfilling social expectations. It is this instinct that brings them under one roof, suffering from one disease. Madness.

Veronica was going to die but the climax brings a surprise, both to her and to the readers- of how life offers itself if we promise to live it to its fulfillment.