Wednesday, August 12, 2020

The Plague - Albert Camus


Since the Corona Virus hit the States, this classic tome has been on the best-sellers list and so, it has been a bit pricey. Now, a few months in, the price got to a point where I felt justified in picking it up and checking it out.

Somewhat similar in style and concept to A Year of Wonders, The Plague is set in Oran, a real-life French port city on the Algerian coast, although the story is completely fictionalized, despite Oran having been visited by various plagues over the centuries. Like AYOW, it narrates the trials of a quarantined city, separated from the rest of the world and doing what they can to live through a devastating, contagious disease. The narrator's identity is kept hidden until the end (for no real reason), but one main character is the town's doctor, whose tales give us a window into the various residents' reactions to the isolation, to their loved one's illnesses, and to their life lived in unrelenting anxiety.

Although written and set in the late 1940's, other than the mentions of inventions such as the phone and cars, the style of writing seems much more archaic to me, albeit that could be due to the translation from the original French. Considered an "existentialist classic", I actually find the writing a bit clumsy and stilted and do not see the multiple meanings that supposedly apply to some of the writings (according to Wikipedia, anyway).

The story follows numerous members of the city as they live - or die - through the plague. I find it interesting that the city secludes itself but it does not require individual isolation - in fact, it seems to encourage gatherings at bars and restaurants, until someone is diagnosed as having the plague. Of course, it spreads throughout the city and the townsfolk struggle to deal with life under these conditions. Oddly, at one point, one character goes into a monologue against the death penalty, merely as an aside, but an interesting one. This is completely out of the blue and nothing of the sort is ever repeated - apparently, just something that Camus wanted to put into print, although I suppose there could be some sort of simile to the situation that the townsfolk found themselves in.

Of course, eventually, the plague finishes its reign and the town does its best to return to normalcy, it whatever way that expresses itself to the different inhabitants. Somewhat anti-climatic in the story, as happens in real life, I suppose. There's no real heroes or villains, nothing particularly uplifting or even totally depressing - just reporting the incidents as they happen. I guess this is what leaves me feeling uninspired after reading this - I think in our real-life, current experiences, there are more ups'n'downs, more true good'n'evil - we shall see what the people who live through the days of COVID write of their experiences!