I'm not finding it easy to start this review. I've given it several turns and looked for the right angle to talk about it, but the truth is that there isn't one. Or at least I haven't found it. So, since there was no way to find what I was looking for -which I'm not sure what it was either, to tell you the truth-, I decided to sit in front of my computer and let myself go.
Well, actually it's my ideas that have to fly away because they're the owners of this review and these impressions. And it couldn't be otherwise, given the subject matter of this book, so without further delay, I'm going to tell you about it.
It is Suicide Club, a novel written by Luis Méndez that is quite difficult to classify. When I arrived I thought I had a mystery book in front of me, perhaps a thriller or crime novel, but soon - at twenty pages or so - I realized that nothing was going in the right direction. Because this book could be described more like a philosophical treatise, bridging the gap, than as a novel to use.
You may wonder why I chose these words to describe the book in front of me. Well, as I have said, they are free to do as they please and they are the owners of this review, and since they have decided that the book I am talking about is pure philosophy - without ever losing sight of the fact that it is a novel with its chapters and its plot - that is how they wanted to portray it. Because yes, I consider that this novel is a compendium of ideas, theories, and ramblings that enter the reader's mind through the dialogues that the protagonist has with different characters. This protagonist is Fonseca, a serious guy, critical of society in general and his life in particular, and with many concerns that lead him to give endless turns to certain topics. He usually meets Acuña, his colleague, with whom he shares long talks on various subjects. Lately, Fonseca is very interested in the subject of suicide, which is something that has been going around and around and wants to squeeze it to find all the meaning. Acuña, who has already exhausted the avenues of this particular subject, recommends that he travel to Belgium, where he has a friend who knows a lot about the subject. Fonseca will soon meet this character, from whom he will learn and with whom he will mature both personally and philosophically.
The book in question is very well written. And I say it this way, without beating about the bush, because that's the feeling I've had from beginning to end. The author gives a lot of importance to the words he uses, and it seems that he chooses them delicately so that everything fits together. Here, not only does the message matter, but also the way is essential. Luis Méndez makes sure that the words put in Fonseca's or the rest of the character's mouth reach the reader in a clean and clear way. I give so much importance to this because I have told you before that we are in front of a philosophical compendium so that using a language that is cumbersome or difficult to understand would make the reader, dejected, abandon the reading at the first change. However, this does not happen, since the author works hard to ensure that his words are the right ones.
But I will not deceive you, this book is difficult to read. It's not a light novel, I'll tell you that, but I think that the reader who has come this far doesn't want something that's easy, doesn't want something to spend time with. The reader who enters The Suicide Club has to do so knowing that he is going to play a game against his own mind. You are going to question ideas that were already inside your head, maybe predetermined or may be self-imposed, but whatever it is, you will have to think, and a lot. And maybe the subject he's talking about, suicide will just hang around inside him for a while. Not because this book induces that, I don't want to be misunderstood, but because after reading it, the suicide figure is seen in a different way. It may be that the reader continues to think exactly the same after reading the book, but it may also be that ideas such as the legitimacy or ethics of euthanasia hover within his mind.
I believe that the author does not intend to change anyone's mind, but he does intend that we all think before giving an opinion on a particular subject. In the end, I believe that this is what Philosophy is based on examining what we have around us and expressing it until we are clear about what we think about it and why we think it.