Mutasim Billah 's Reviews > The Plague
by
![20438238](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1536682441p2/20438238.jpg)
“All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it's up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences.”
![](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1593626896i/29746191._SX540_.jpg)
The city of Oran
What is life like during an epidemic? The answer, truly, is that human beings eventually make a habit of everything given the time and space to cope. And eventually they get used to death, to mourn silently, to treat the new sick and to quarantine the ones they were in contact with as if it were a regular day's work. Because an epidemic normalizes the harshest and most inevitable truth of all: Death.
![](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1593627201i/29746212._SX540_.jpg)
“But what does it mean, the plague? It's life, that's all.”
I really like this book, and I find it very relevant to the modern world, for the Plague is indeed life. For what is war, but another epidemic. For what is apartheid, and the many massacres in the name of ideology anything but just another face of the disease in our hearts. In a world where medical research grants are harder to fund compared to military arms deals, we need to really consider what the real epidemic is.
![](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1588396043i/29395384._SX540_.jpg)
“What’s true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves.”
The story portrays a fictional account from an unnamed narrator of a case of bubonic plague sweeping through the French Algerian city of Oran. Set some time in the 1940s, the novel gives an absurdist account of the powerlessness felt by the central characters when faced with an epidemic.
Quotes Mutasim Liked
![Albert Camus](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1686463588i/957894._UY200_CR46,0,200,200_.jpg)
― The Plague
![Albert Camus](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1686463588i/957894._UY200_CR46,0,200,200_.jpg)
― The Plague
Reading Progress
Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)
![Down arrow](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/down_arrow-1e1fa5642066c151f5e0136233fce98a.gif)
![Maureen](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1447766454p1/13427823.jpg)
![Mutasim Billah](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1536682441p1/20438238.jpg)
Thanks JV, although I'm almost two years late in replying. Apologies :)
![Mutasim Billah](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1536682441p1/20438238.jpg)
Thanks Maureen! Hope you and yours are doing well in these testing times. :)
![Maureen](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1447766454p1/13427823.jpg)
Thanks Maureen! Hope you and yours are doing well in these testing times. :)"
We’re doing ok thanks Mutasim, trying to stay positive during these awful times. Stay safe 👍🏻