Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate's Reviews > The Plague
The Plague
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![1237196](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p2/1237196.jpg)
Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate's review
bookshelves: 2014-reviews, 2014-read, fiction, reviewed, 10-star-books
May 12, 2014
bookshelves: 2014-reviews, 2014-read, fiction, reviewed, 10-star-books
Read The Plague free here. Coronovirus is the name of the 21stC plague. If you don't know what existentialism is, reading this and relating to the world we have today and how it's looking for the next week, month and perhaps even longer, will show you. Coronavirus has no favourites, everyone's in line to catch it, it's just a wrong-place-at-the-right-time disease. Some will die, and there won't be any huge funerals and memorial services either. Eventually there may be mass funerals, unattended as in the book. Let's hope it doesn't get to that.
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This was as much an existentialist tract as it was a book about the descent of a town into plague; the gradient of the decline increasing exponentially until they reach the pit. There it is death and smoke and groans and every bit the imagined hell of those with a religious consciousness.
But the plague has no relationship to religion. The innocent die as much as the guilty. Shady people are sly by night, criminals escape justice, the great and the good sleep peacefully in their beds but the plague is the great equalizer: they all die. This is an atheist world where nothing has rhyme or reason and blaming it on fate or an angry god or questioning why the deities have ignored the supplicants increasing praises, appeals and desperate petitions is futile. Even they see it is pointless and in the end the comforting rituals of death and consignment of the remains have mostly been abandoned. The plague strikes almost all and those whom it leaves, aren't special in any way.
Pacing is not something I tend to notice in a novel, but I did in this one, it is outstanding. The pacing matches the descent into hell and the recovery into sunlight in a brisk sea air absolutely perfectly. At the end, after all the pain and darkness I felt relieved and refreshed, an unusual feeling for the end of a book.
10 stars, golden ones.
revised Sept 2019
________________________________
This was as much an existentialist tract as it was a book about the descent of a town into plague; the gradient of the decline increasing exponentially until they reach the pit. There it is death and smoke and groans and every bit the imagined hell of those with a religious consciousness.
But the plague has no relationship to religion. The innocent die as much as the guilty. Shady people are sly by night, criminals escape justice, the great and the good sleep peacefully in their beds but the plague is the great equalizer: they all die. This is an atheist world where nothing has rhyme or reason and blaming it on fate or an angry god or questioning why the deities have ignored the supplicants increasing praises, appeals and desperate petitions is futile. Even they see it is pointless and in the end the comforting rituals of death and consignment of the remains have mostly been abandoned. The plague strikes almost all and those whom it leaves, aren't special in any way.
Pacing is not something I tend to notice in a novel, but I did in this one, it is outstanding. The pacing matches the descent into hell and the recovery into sunlight in a brisk sea air absolutely perfectly. At the end, after all the pain and darkness I felt relieved and refreshed, an unusual feeling for the end of a book.
10 stars, golden ones.
revised Sept 2019
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Reading Progress
May 8, 2014
–
Started Reading
May 12, 2014
– Shelved
May 12, 2014
– Shelved as:
2014-read
May 12, 2014
– Shelved as:
2014-reviews
May 12, 2014
– Shelved as:
fiction
May 12, 2014
–
Finished Reading
May 5, 2015
– Shelved as:
reviewed
March 7, 2016
– Shelved as:
10-star-books
Comments Showing 1-50 of 64 (64 new)
message 1:
by
Karen
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added it
May 12, 2014 07:21PM
![Karen](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1378698865p1/23786100.jpg)
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![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
The Outsider wasn't a Camus was it?
![Kim](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1454402751p1/4542979.jpg)
![Karen](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1378698865p1/23786100.jpg)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
![Karen](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1378698865p1/23786100.jpg)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
![Karen](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1378698865p1/23786100.jpg)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
Be sure to write a review. Or more than one.
![Dolors](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1691612725p1/18383778.jpg)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
![Lizzy](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1512052362p1/30575403.jpg)
![flo](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1724463519p1/21575078.jpg)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
The brilliance and originality of Camus.
Thank you Lizzy and Florencia.
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
It became more relevant to me after hurricanes Irma and Maria where 80% of all buildings suffered major damage. Religion, fate, all of that was made obvious to everyone rational that they were just human constructs. Afterwards though people went to church to thank God for not sparing their lives if not their property. No one was like why did God kill other people, why the hurricanes and floods at all. The book is about a disease, not hurricanes. Same difference.
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
Worth it. Although it is a 'heavy' classic, it's a very easy and enjoyable read. Camus was an amazing writer, very concise.
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
Thank you. The devastation of Irma, Maria and the floods, all within 6 weeks, illustrated the perfect truth of the book. I couldn't understand the number of people who went to church despite seeing their was no rhyme or reason for the 80% of people who had major damage against the 20% who didn't.
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
Thank you. Despite the existentialist nature of the present crisis, the churches around here will (when gatherings are allowed again) of people thanking God for sparing them and not blaming God for sending the plague. Indeed some churchers will preach that the plague of coronavirus was sent because the world is evil and not question why deaths occurred among people who had lived blameless lives.
It was just like that after Irma and Maria.
![JZ](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1562345879p1/1595477.jpg)
I've just been looking at "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century" by Barbara Tuchman. Here's the blurb: The 14th century gives us back two contradictory images: a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and a dark time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world plunged into a chaos of war, fear and the Plague. Barbara Tuchman anatomizes the century, revealing both the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived.
Just thinking of comparing and contrasting, as we were taught.
I'm looking forward to being able to stay home with no apologies, again. I did this for over a year for my eye surgeries, and thus listened to so many books and plays in the last couple of years. I just spent 4 months in Arizona, repairing my vitamin D from all that, and home for the current 'social distancing' craze.
For me, it's just the perfect time for people to do a little deep thought and philosophising, if they don't completely loose their shit. (Thus, the run on toilet paper, unequalled in history.)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
Some people have lost it already. The anti-vaccine people are saying it was invented as a population control measure as there is a vaccine available which will be forced on them. This is supposed to be funded by Bill Gates. These anti-vax people have shown how communities have been endangered by them already and also how, as with all conspiracy theorists, facts are considered a hoax. This could be a very dangerous movement.
![Jonathan](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1629925389p1/8258265.jpg)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
This is nothing like The Outsider. It is very plainly written, there are no people who are introspective or otherwise, no scenes to decipher. It is just a history of how a plague hit a small town and how life disintegrated because of it. Just as we are witnessing the beginnings of here with Coronavirus. Because of this, the book is extremely relatable.
![JZ](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1562345879p1/1595477.jpg)
omg, yes! I went grocery shopping today, and found no peanut butter, toilet paper, bleach, frozen veg, (at all), fish sticks, french fries, veggie burgers, bread, milk other than 1%, bagged carrots, canned beans, meat, or salsa, (really?) or odd things, like paper products and cleaners.
Lots of chips, tea, candy, still a lot of wine and beer, but that's dissipating as I watch.
sigh
It makes me long for the isolation of the desert BLM lands.
![Jonathan](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1629925389p1/8258265.jpg)
This is nothing like The Outsider. It is very plainly written, there are no people who are introspec..."
Sounds just right, Thanks :-)
message 32:
by
Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate
(last edited Mar 20, 2020 06:55AM)
(new)
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rated it 5 stars
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
I just posted a link to a free copy, so you can try it.
![Melki](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1308071306p1/5293536.jpg)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
I know what you mean. When I am on the island, which is effing boring, I don't really care if I have to stay home (so long as I can go out to dinner once a week). I do my partying in Florida, which is why I am in isolation now.
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
And we're staying for the forseeable future it would seem.
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
Thank you. We've had it and recovered. I'm almost at the end of the isolation period.
![JZ](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1562345879p1/1595477.jpg)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
but I had to stop when they spoke about burning the Chinatown tenaments with the people inside, and guns outside.
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
OMG. That is horrific. There are always groups of people who think that they should have the power of life or death over others and never think of putting themselves in their victim's situation.
![Lisa Vegan](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1243394822p1/83445.jpg)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
The media has to write something besides coronavirus mortality stories. No winners in this war.
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
Is this a sock puppet account you keep to use once every three years to make peremptory comments from?
![Marty Seaney](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1352922692p1/7745898.jpg)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
![Guillaume HUNTZINGER](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)
![Petra: hiatus, finding it hard to communicate](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1704124199p1/1237196.jpg)
Camus wrote fiction. We are living this pandemic. Or dying.
![Thomas J](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)