Coelho, Paulo: The Alchemist
The Alchemist
Writer: Paulo Coelho
Genre: Fiction/Inspirational
Pages: 167
This is one of those books I've always seen around, meant to pick up, and never did. How did I end up reading it? It's well-known at work that I read all the time, because that's what I do during my breaks. One of my co-workers asked if I had read The Alchemist, and when I said I hadn't but meant to, he told me a friend of his had handed down his copy to my co-worker, who'd read the book, loved it, and wanted to pass it along. So he passed it along to me.
I'm not going to bother with a cut for this book. At 167 pages, it's an incredibly short book and there's really not that much to talk about. The prose has a fairy-tale/fable type quality to it, which makes for a fast, smooth read, and the tale itself is very much a fable geared towards teaching its readers a truth about life: the difference between those who truly go after their dreams (or as Coelho calls it, their "Personal Legend"), and those who always keep the dreams in sight but never purse them. There's more to the book than simply that, and for its type and the audience that places its faith in something bigger and greater than themselves, it's a good book, and even offers something more than your usual inspirational/how-to-live-life to its fullest tale. The lesson here is that the answers are always found within, but the lessons often come from without.
I think I would've loved this book when I was in high school, when I wasn't so cynical, jaded, or realistic about the world and its ways. The beauty of this book, for me, was merely a sparkle, as I've read far better fables/fairy tales in this type of setting (hello, Valente) that spoke to me on a far deeper level. And I think the other reason this book didn't click with me was because on some level, I already understood its main lesson, about what it means to go after ones dreams, because that's what I'm doing right now.
So on one hand, the book was a nice affirmation of what I already knew. But as a work of fiction, well, let's just say the characters are one dimensional, there's little to no conflict, and some scenes in which the boy is conversing with non-human objects feels a little silly at times. It's a shame too that I'm unable to read this book in its original language, as I imagine some of the beauty of the prose has been lost in translation. There's not much I can do about that though, so I must take the book at face value.
That said, it's an easy book to recommend, even for those who aren't necessarily religious (and by religious, I mean any religion), as the message of a Personal Legend was more important, to me, than the bigger message of a something bigger guiding us. It's a fast read too. I think I finished it in two hours.
Next up: Neuromancer by William Gibson