BOOK: Veronika Decides To Die - Paulo Coelho

Title: Veronika Decides To Die (Veronika decide morrer)
Author: Paulo Coelho
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Thorsons
Paperback: 208 pages
Language: English
Rating: 5/10

Summary: Young and -apparently- pretty Veronika is not satisfied with the monotony of her life and decides to kill herself. The end... (Now wouldn't that have been a great short story...) Unfortunately Veronika is 'saved' just in time and she wakes up to find herself alive and admitted to a mental hospital. When she is told she damaged her body and still only has a few days left to live, surrounded by supposedly mad people, she starts to evaluate her life.

Review
I didn't like this book at all. First I thought it was because of the crooked translation from Portuguese to English, but seeing as it is an "international bestseller", it must be me. I struggled with the simple language and the run-away sentences. I also had a problem with the continuous switching point of view, especially when it changes in the middle of scenes.
I assume the addition of stories of other patients was to show the extensive range of madness, but the inclusion of a chapter about the writer himself was completely redundant. His own experience with psychiatry and his relationship with Veronika's doctor does not authenticate the story for me. If anything it made the characters look like caricatures and the doctor came across as a mad scientist.

As for the subject and the main character; I could not identify with Veronika at all. I understand some (most?) people are afraid to live their life to the fullest for whatever reason, but to need a near death experience to appreciate your life is just too pathetic to me. Even in my darkest days of depression I do not need that obvious conclusion shoved in my face. What a load of duh.