#bookreview THE ALCHEMIST

NAME: The Alchemist (o alquimista)

AUTHOR: Paulo Coelho

GENRE: Adventure/Spiritualism

LANGUAGE: English (originally written in Portuguese)

NO OF PAGES: 197

PUBLISHED DATE: 1988

ISBN: 0061122416

MY RATING: 2 out of 5



I am really trying hard to write this review without mocking this book, worldwide super hyped book alchemist was really disappointing for me, in general its a very good book but simply not for mainstream readers.

SYNOPSIS:
 
      It is the story of a shepherd boy from the Spanish province of Andalusia who dreams of travelling the world in search of a treasure as desirable as any ever found. From his home, his journey to the exotic markets of North Africa and then in the Egyptian desert, where a fateful encounter with the alchemist awaits him....

(Official synopsis given in the book)


THE ALCHEMIST:

           As you read the above synopsis, I expected the book to super page turning adventure like Dan brown books. But this book is about the boys' journey of finding his destiny (not sure its the girl or treasure) with confusing aspect of spiritual aspects and cultural influences. On a spiritual (christian) aspect, the book is excellent, including tales and motivational stories, giving hope for people going through tough times, but it fails to deliver the same hope to the general mass. The book highly inclined towards Christianity, also features "son of god" in sub story.

          There is a state of confusion in concepts like spiritualism, destiny, treasure, some are self contradicts. The author even fails to explain the meaning of love. The main theme was supposed to be the everything has a soul (from humans to inanimate rocks, winds, desert, sun) and all the souls are part of God, everything has a purpose in his grand design. But explained them in a bewildered manner with concepts like language of god, language of the heart, the language of nature, etc... (I am not going to discuss about alchemy and spiritualism)


       In literary aspect, The narration was mostly in the authors' view, a few chapters are from Santiago, merchant, Englishman, and the alchemist. The writing is simple, very fast paced, moves on and moves on. The language is too easy to grasp, keep you from getting bored. Poor character development and lacks backstory, and cuts off character after their use, the author should have written an epilogue on what happened to the merchant and an Englishman. Instead, he wrote about the boy digging up the treasure and feeling the kiss of his beloved in the wind.

OVER ALL:

         If you really feel bad for yourself, you need a push to do something read this book. I would recommend the book to people going through tough times and people in christian background.

       Just not for mainstream readers.

                                                                                                       ---SIDHARTH