The Plague by Albert Camus

“Rats die, plague comes, existential crisis sets in, plague vanishes”

Overview: The Plague is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. It asks a number of questions relating to the nature of destiny and the human condition. The characters in the book, ranging from doctors to vacationers to fugitives, all help to show the effects the plague has on a populace.

I liked and simultaneously disliked this book. Super cool concept and interesting how things played out, but I didn’t like the way it was written. Camus, at least in this novel, uses very colorful language and while there are some good lines, like “Plague had killed all colors, vetoed pleasure,” a lot of the writing is very philosophical and sometimes I had to go back and reread things to make sure I was understanding. I found myself thinking "huh? what did the narrator just say? What did he mean?"

In general, this book is about human resilience in the face of horror/sickness/plague and it definitely took me a few weeks to get through it. Yes, it was a novel, with a plot and central characters, but it also felt like a a social, political, philosophical commentary.

One thing to note, the vocabulary used in this novel was extensive. Here are some of my favorites:

Slake - Turgid - Excoriate - Irascible - Imperturbable - Pique - Deprecate - Desultory