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[lapsedmodernist]

I was going to write about The Apocalypse. But I think I will write about The Apocalypse tomorrow and tonight I am going to write about how much I hate Paulo Coelho.

I hate Paulo Coelho more than I hate Forrest Gump and almost as much as I hate Life is BeautifulMy first experience with Paulo Coelho came about because I have fits of vanity

Comments

[darkadaptedeye]

thank you so much for writing this. i can't stand how many people i know find "deeper meaning" in these books.

i used to feel obligated to read books through to the end once i started them, but i'm relieved that i can't even make it past the liner notes of these. i'm sure there's a whole set of adjectives that serve as red flags for me now: "uplifting", "inspiring", "beautiful", blah blah barf.

but i do have to disagree with you on one thing, i think Veronica is a cool and sexy name. but in that kind of subversive, anti-Paulo Coelho kind of way.

haha. ok, i'm a dork.

[lapsedmodernist]

but i do have to disagree with you on one thing, i think Veronica is a cool and sexy name. but in that kind of subversive, anti-Paulo Coelho kind of way.

Because I am having some kind of weird 6th-grade regressive moment I almost typed "yeah, well then why don't you MARRY her?" but then realized that would come out all wrong.

Maybe it's normal to hate your own name, like everyone hates the sound of their voice on tape, but my bitterness is also compounded by the fact that I was supposed to be named Ada and never got any explanation (that made sense) as to why that didn't happen. I could have had a Nabokovian name! And I ended up with a Coelhostrosity.

[klingrap]

Yeah, but would you want to share a name with a perverted and incestuous, albeit brilliant, nymphomaniac?

Yeah, I guess I would too.

[lapsedmodernist]

a perverted and incestuous, albeit brilliant, nymphomaniac

I guess I could have also been named Anna!

Xcept the Jewish Tradition and all that (Grandma Anna).

[congogirl]

I was supposed to be named Ada

You know, I have a pretty negative association with the name Ada, from a girl in 8th grade and the weird twin in The Poisonwood Bible, so I'm voting for Veronica.

[lapsedmodernist]

How was The Poisonwood Bible? I kind of avoided Barbara Kingsolver's writing for years assuming that I would hate it in an Oprah-book way but I picked up Pigs in Heaven while in Ecuador and to my surprise enjoyed it. It was kind of John Sayles-ish in a weird way.

[congogirl]

I like her writing a lot, actually, despite the mass marketing and the OSOA (oprah stamp of approval), I think I got into her before all that. I read the Poisonwood Bible a while back, so I don't remember a lot of details, but her approach of writing from the perspectives of 4 sisters and the mother alternately was pretty intense -- she convincingly created these 5 different voices. And of course, the premise of the fate of the missionary family in the middle of nowhere with a bullheaded father at the helm is interesting, one of his faux-pas with the locals being the genesis of the title (mispronunciation of the local words for Holy Bible).

I was sucked into Prodigal Summer as well.