The Death of Ivan Illich is a book that tells the life story of an average Russian magistrate in the 19th century.
The book begins with the wake of Mr Ilillich narrated by one of his friends who tells the news of his death to his colleagues and everyone is indifferent if not relieved that he has died, what they really paid attention to is who was going to be promoted. instead, he goes to the funeral and one of his friends invites him to a game of cards escaping from the funeral he was going to after talking to the widow Praskovya who was at first sad about the death of her husband but in the end wanted to just knowing if he could earn more money from the Treasury for being the widow of a civil servant, everything breathed falsehood he says goodbye to the girl and there begins the life story of the dead Ivan, a man who has always been average in all aspects of his life told, he was the son of an office worker, the brother of two other men of whom he was not as regimented as the eldest nor as rebellious as the youngest, who fell totally in love with his career, with its judgments. and writing, but mostly by the high society world, card games and elite parties and he did most things himself because of outside influence i.e. got married, had kids and did a lot of other things just because whoever was successful in his area did the same to show up at his meetings and talk to people of the nobility, but then after getting married he finds out that it wasn't the comfort he expected as he wanted his wife to just be there to support him and stay with him at times, which doesn't happen since she was human and needed attention, he fought with her several times and starts to keep a greater distance and he liked this distance until he got tired and went in search of work in St.Petesburg a very good job and he returns to an optimism he never had before that makes him decorate the whole house in a perfectionist way to please his wife and children and everything in the beginning was great until he falls and is injured in the kidney, and this becomes a disease that becomes an unbearable pain for him that completely weakened him causing unbearable pain, he goes to several doctors who are undecided about the diagnosis leaving him paranoid about this disease, changing his mind several sometimes about the severity of the disease, sometimes thinking he was going to die, sometimes thinking it was nothing
The illness worsened to the point of leaving him unable to carry out his work, which was one of his only pleasures, he is isolated at home with his family who did not provide the least help, especially his wife who was false in recent years until reaching ridicule his illness, himself with the cries of pain except his servant (who represented innocence, youth and charity) and his youngest son, those who had sincerity in his vision, he agonizes for months and months in this room and thinks a lot about his life thinking that he could have lived a huge falsehood all his way except for a few moments of his youth that he remembered loving a girl and being rebellious, his memories were more and more moving away from him and in these thoughts he finally admits to death personified that he had lived in a wrong way takes pleasure in it and takes his last breath on Earth.
Ivan Illilich is in my opinion a portrait of falsehood and apathy in its purest form, his friends, family and wife for the most part were always with him either for interest or system or convenience but never for what he really was, his life is a tragedy without adjectives, agreeing with everything that society imposed on him and advancing it gradually to his last heartbeat