The Plague

The latest publication from the admirable Fitzcarraldo Editions is a collection of typically acute essays, first published in the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books and elsewhere, by Jacqueline Rose on death, the pandemic and war in Ukraine. Their recentness gives them the quality of contemporaneous testimony (and reminders of early government failures reminds us how much happened so quickly), combined with the depth and power of Rose's analysis. The earliest essay, the title essay on Camus' The Plague, is a much more considered analysis of the novel than many that appeared in the wake of the pandemic in 2020 and prepares us for the collection's open and regretful examination of how death has haunted us during the period. It is followed by essays on Freud, the isolation of lockdown (including the "shadow pandemic" of the increase in domestic violence), reconstruction (which is suitably scathing about the culture wars), and the centrepiece essay, 'Simone Weil and the Limits of Justice', which is less immediate in effect than its predecessors but persistence pays off. This is a characteristically impressive essay collection which does what Esposito says of Weil (as quoted by Rose): it 'read[s] history from its dark side, in search of the ‘torn heart’ beating from within ‘extreme discord’, a beat in which she never lost faith." Recommended.

Accessible, passionate, wide-ranging while relentless in its focus - my first experience of nonfiction from Fitzcarraldo did not disappoint.

Rose is always interesting and often challenging, and this collection of essays, while not exactly controversial, certainly caused the occasional eyebrow raise. I really enjoyed it, though found myself more engaged during the sections on Freud and Klein than I was during the section that focused on Simone Weil.

My thanks to Fitzcarraldo Editions and NetGalley for the ARC.

Following the covid pandemic, I feel that a lot of our attitudes towards death and dying have shifted dramatically. As such, nonficiton such as this is so important for navigating these new paradigms.