The Plague
Not surprisingly, a new generation of readers have discovered Albert Camus’ book The Plague. The book is currently out of stock on Amazon, and publishers are scrambling to get a copy out for all to read. First published in 1947, it is a story set in Oran, on a coastal town in Algeria, that chronicles the abrupt arrival and slow departure of a fictional outbreak of bubonic plague.
It follows the lives of the townsfolk as they struggle to respond to an invisible killer in their midst. The city prefect is convinced the threat is wildly overstated (sound familiar?), while everyone else is merely reactive, each in his own way. I swear, we’ve seen a similar scene at many different levels before; quite lately, in fact.
The plague spreads, people die, everyone is ordered to quarantine at home as the local doctor works around the clock to save victims. There are acts of heroism and acts of shame; there are those who think only of themselves, and those who are engaged for the greater good. The human condition, as Albert Camus paints in the book, is absurd and precarious.
Even when a quarter of the city was dying, the people of Oran couldn’t accept this. They keep imagining reasons it won’t happen to them – they are modern people with phones, airplanes and newspapers, they are surely not going to die like the wretches of 17th-century London. “It’s impossible it should be the plague, everyone knows it has vanished,” a character says. “Yes, everyone knew that,” Camus adds, “except the dead.”
In detailing the varying responses of the people, Albert Camus attempts to draw a portrait of what it is to be human in trying times. He reminds us that suffering is random, and that is the kindest thing one can say about it. Far from drawing trite conclusions about human bravery and nobility, the book suggests that a necessary optimism and indefatigable effort are what really count when humanity is put on trial.
Whether or not you’ve read The Plague, the book demands reading, or rereading, at this tense international moment, as COVID-19 sweeps the globe. It serves as a playbook of sorts in dealing with the current health crisis. Camus’ writing offers valuable insights into how one may approach the idea of disease. If any, it is thinking clearly about the arbitrary killer in our midst that may enable us to act better against it.
