This is a horrifying read about the seemingly minute-by-minute account of the Plague in the French Algerian city of Oren.
It is told through the main vantage point of a doctor as well as several other fictitious characters in the story, with every single one of them has different attitude and reaction towards the growingly worrying pandemic.
And it is growingly, alright. Where the book takes us into the slow but steady realization that something is wrong, very wrong, an apocalypse-level wrong. And by the time they realized that this is something gravely dangerous, it’s all almost too late.
It is a story of powerlessness and resilience, in navigating life in the midst of a turbulent wave. It is a projection of extremes between suffering and compassion, madness and hope. And most of all, it is a tale of surviving death.
It feels too similar like the Covid pandemic that we all just experienced 4 years ago; all that quarantine, the social distancing, the protests, the overloaded hospitals, the serums (vaccines), the overworked social workers, even the silent mass burials where no family member can attend.
And the book perfectly captured the overall atmosphere when it was published in 1947. Camus nailed it.
THE CHAOS THEORY 