doji_k 's review for:

The Plague by Albert Camus

4.0

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Prophetic and thought provoking. Camus continues to surprise me with how much he seemed to understand humanity. Camus expressed that writing this was not just about a fictional plague, but instead about how we process and deal with great tragedies and hardships. This is why for much of the novel he refers to the plague as a scourge instead.
I wanted to read this not only because I am a huge fan of Camus, but also because I felt the concept of approaching a fictional plague from a philosophical view was unique compared to other approaches, most notably the movie Contagion.
I would say my only flaws would be the length and some of the storytelling. The middle drags due to repetition and many passages will devolve into philosophical musings, which is fine. But this also sacrificed the story and characters. In fact, it's almost as if all of the characterization is left for the last quarter of the book. It just makes me feel like this would have been perfect if it were instead a much shorter collection of essays instead, and it definitely feels like it at times.
Nevertheless I can still say I enjoyed this greatly and have many bookmarked pages and highlighted sections.