Review: The Plague by Albert Camus

The Plague by Albert Camus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book tells the story of a plague epidemic in the city of Oran, Algeria, that forced the city to close its doors and isolate itself for almost one year. Reading it now in 2023, I can't believe this didn't become *required* reading at the start of the COVID pandemic! (although it did become a best-seller during the pandemic). It reminds me of the movies Outbreak and Contagion, both of which must be influenced by the novel. It has all the hallmarks of the typical pandemic "plot" (or real-life!), like the authorities refusing to acknowledge reality, not acting immediately to precent a panic, the people themselves denying that it was serious; quarantines, lockdowns, and the whole spectrum of human nature when faced with such a disaster. Sadly, although old, the novel is entirely relevant to present day. For example, it features people fighting back against the quarantine, locking house doors to prevent the sick family members to be taken to the hospital!

The narration is very matter-of-fact, like a reporter writing. At first, it's exciting and fast paced, but then towards the middle, it starts to feel that it is dragging on too much. There is a lot of reflections, “philosophizing” about people's behavior.

Still, it had a lot of great scenes, great quotes, and thought provoking questions.

It struck me that the novel focus more on the logistics of quarantine and lockdown, and spends more time describing and exploring the human behavior, psychology , sociology, human nature in this environment, rather than the disease and death. We don’t even get a description of someone dying from the disease until 3/4 of the book (and it’s a brutal one). Makes sense, since the story is supposedly based on a breakout of cholera that happened in Oran decades earlier; and in this book the disease is plague - obviously the specific disease is secondary to the book, what really matters is the people. In the end, I think it makes it more universal, as it’s not really specific to the plague.

The main protagonist is Camus' absurdist hero: the idealist doctor in the middle of an epidemic. He works tireless not only to help his patients, but also to show people that the only way to fight an epidemic is through common decency - a difficult proposition then, a difficult proposition now.

The question of religion and faith is explored in the character of Father Paneloux, a priest respected by the whole town, who makes a series of ominous sermons. In his first sermon, it’s exactly what you expect, taking the stereotype to the verge of parody: “you deserved it”, says the priest. It’s troubling though, that this message is never directly questioned in the book; and it’s scary that this echoes so well the message of preachers to this day to all pandemics (like AIDS and COVID). By the second sermon, his position is more nuanced, and he himself addresses one of the crucial questions of faith: how can we explain the suffering of children? His conclusion, though, is hard and cruel, even if the narrator does not paint it like that: we must believe everything, we must believe in God otherwise we believe in nothing. The suffering of children, if anything, proves the existence of God. It’s strange that the narrator has such a neutral tone when describing the sermon and the message. Maybe he didn't want to explicitly refute it, but rather show how cruel it is, letting the reader decide that this is a horrible position to defend.

Towards the end, the narrator very briefly addresses the matter of social and economic inequality. People are starting to notice that the rich are doing much better through the epidemic. The authorities reassure the people that in death, all are equal; but the people reply “nobody wants that kind of equality!” :). This is great stuff!

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