The Plague - Albert Camus (4 of 5 Coughing Attacks)

My dad asked if this lack of post was a creative approach to existentialism.  Well...I wish.  Rather, it's just one indicator of how busy I'm been recently.  I've been recording the titles of the books I've been reading, but haven't had the time to fill in the rest.  I set them to automatically post every Friday, and well, technology got ahead of me this time.

So, if you didn't read The Plague in high school or college here's the summary.  A small town in Algeria is quarantined when a black plague outbreak is detected.  The story follows several characters as they try to cope with the terrible conditions.

The reason why everyone read this book in AP English in high school is because everyone dies.  No surprise there.  And yes, it's pretty depressing.  However, I found that I enjoyed reading the book much more this time around.  Perhaps this is because I'm a little bit older and have experienced more of the joys and pains that life offers and can therefore connect better to the dire circumstances of the characters.  Or perhaps it's just because I had a better professor helping me through it this time.  You have to push through a lot of dense material for the first 250 pages, but the ending is truly liberating and intensely beautiful.  If you haven't read it in a while, I'd suggest you take another look.