The Plague by Albert Camus

[ecoman]

Since I read and write thriller novels dealing with epidemics, I decided to read “The Plague” by Albert Camus. What struck me right off was this was not a novel dealing with the microorganism that caused an epidemic. Instead it was about how the various characters handle a situation where a plague causes the isolation of a city.
Also, I found the writing style quite interesting. The author uses the omniscient point of view to allow a narrator to tell the story. The narrator also uses quotes from the various characters plus referring to a journal of one of the character to move the story along.
But like I said before, the reader is shown how the characters react to being quarantined and cut off from the rest of the world. This allows the author to get in a lot of philosophical and theological ideas to play around with in how his various characters act in response to the plague. With out a doubt this novel is well written. I can see why Albert Camus received a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.

[psdoerksen]

I agree. I was particularly impressed by how the novel worked on multiple levels--it was at once a story about a quarantined community as well as an inspiring articulation of Camus' humanistic philosophy, one more effective than any essays he wrote.

[B3cca 3ll3r]

I may just have to read this! My favorite kind of history is how it affected people. I often get lost in the science and medicine so I find it much easier to see how things were dealt with by people of the time.

[BarryEM]

The idea of reading a book about a plague seems so dismal to me and so unpleasant and yet it's been to topic of several of my favorite books. Boccaccio's "The Decameron", Hesse's "Narcissus and Goldmund", Follett's "World Without End", the sequel to "Pillars of the Earth" and Camus' book are all about this distasteful topic and they're all books I'll never forget. Maybe I need to read more about the plague.

Barry