The Alchemist and other books by Paulo Coelho

Talk about books written by Paulo Coelho.

I really, REALLY, loved The Alchemist. So cheerful, so colorful, and so simple. I think I read that the fifth time by now. Anyone read the book?

I've never read a book written by the man, but judging from the shorts that he published at my local newspaper, I'd say his writing is fairly mediocre. Although, to be fair, I can barely recall what he wrote, just that I didn't enjoy it much.

Maybe I should read Maktu.

I remember liking The Alchemist as I read it, the ending had me facepalming though

She found the story quite immersive and at some points she could feel the heat of the sun, and that she was there talking to the characters. The story was very easy to follow and you didn't get lost on a lot of side story kerfuffle.

At times it was easy to tell that it was translated from another language. Certain ideas and concepts are worded clumsily and it's unusual to see so many seemingly-randomly capitalized words. The concept of the Personal Legend, for instance, didn't really click for zerky, as an English-speaking reader. A Personal Legend sounded a lot like plain old destiny, and using two ordinary capitalized words to describe it isn't really how it's done in English. A less discordant solution would have been to keep those words in Portuguese, or even to translate them to Greek or Latin or something, so the reader won't end up thinking, "I know what personal means, and I know what legend means, but in a conjunction like that, I don't think those words mean what the writer thinks they mean". Certainly the translator's fault, though.

All in all, it seemed like a book best read at a distance. The messages were really ham-handed. zerky picked up this book about the same time as Narnia, and was surprised that despite Narnia's notoriety for being blatant Christian allegory, The Alchemist was much, much worse at being subtle about it. You couldn't even slip the message at the end past a child. Despite that, the buildup to that point was good enough to make it more than worthwhile to get that far. The story was thoroughly enjoyable and if you didn't read too much into the unsubtle Christian messages, it's a great fable.

edited 5th Sep '11 10:14:21 AM by zerky

It's unsubtle, cheesy, simplistic, and at times felt like reading a self-help book. Which makes me hate to say that I ended up enjoying it anyway.

Never read any of his other books.

Tried it, hated it, never finished it.

Least interesting book I've ever read.

Read it about 3 years ago. All I recall was how incredibly unsubtle it was and how bad the prose was in English. Did not enjoy it.

I've often wondered about this book, as I'm very interested in Alchemy. Now I know it's just Christian allegory I'll give it a bodyswerve.

It's got Christian messages in it, but it's not exactly what zerky would call Christian allegory (she was referring to Narnia there). In fact, plotwise it bears more similarity to a tale from One Thousand And One Nights than anything from The Bible. However, it still smacks you upside the head with its morals, so keep that in mind as well. There is an alchemist in the story, and although he teaches the protagonist about alchemy and is an important character in the story, it's not the focus of the story either.

If you're looking for fantasy story with lots of alchemy and antiquated (but working) science in it, zerky'd suggest Celestial Matters. It takes place in a world that obeys the laws of Aristotelian physics and Taoist alchemy. F'rinstance, they build a working spaceship out of moonrock because that's just how the laws of physics work there.

edited 19th Sep '11 9:43:01 PM by zerky

Agreed. I tried really hard, since a friend of mine who's taste I respect said it was one of his favorite books. But it was unbearable, and I managed to get through ALL of Atlus Shrugged. The writing is flat and heavy handed, the characters aren't so much characters as plot devices, and it's pretentious as hell. I felt like there was a good tale in there, but it read more like a plot summary than an actual story.

edited 19th Sep '11 11:39:58 PM by Bluespade

I've read The Pilgrimage and sadly I'd like to say that not judging a book by it's cover goes both ways.

I assumed it would be a trip in which Mr. Coelho finds himself while meeting all the locals and getting caught up in adventures while looking for ancient truths (That's exactly what the back blurb promised), but it ended up being an odd biography(-like thing) that I'm not sure I should take seriously or not since there's a lot of non-real world stuff going on (And there are magic swords and witches). I'm also wondering how the locals felt they were presented (As Magical Foreigners who are oh so powerful yet oh so quaint) along with their locale. It was also overdramatic and...oddly prosed. The main character (Mr. Coelho) is also really annoying and sort of dumb which is sad since you're stuck with him.

It was also ham-handed and kind of tract-ey with Christianity in the end.

edited 20th May '12 7:34:20 AM by fourteenwings

I dislike all books by Coelho, there is a glaring lack of quality, and they seem overly shallow self-help books.

I think a lot of you are missing the point here.

It's SUPPOSED to be simplistic and unsubtle. It's written in the same vein as The Little Prince. You're not supposed to have to look deep for the symbolism.

The Little Prince does not seem an overly shallow self-help book. And it's well written. And it's not really simplistic, especially given that it's a children's book.

edited 20th May '12 9:00:56 PM by Nirnaeth

I read a few of his books: The Alchemist ; The Fifth Mountain ; Veronika Decides To Die ;The Winner Stands Alone and The Manual Of The Warrior Of Light.

I like the Fifth Mountain. I really do. The Alchemist was... Decent. Veronica Decides to Die was good, at first, later I disliked it.

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY HATE The Last Two. AW!

Wow...surprised by all the hate here. I had to read The Alchemist in middle school, and I loved it, and my best friend loved it, and I made my sister read it and she loved it. It is a very simple, rather obvious book. But I like simple things sometimes, like highly symmetrical Renaissance paintings. Their straightforwardness is refreshing. In a similar vein I'm not religious but I still like those religious Renaissance paintings, and I liked the Alchemist. You don't have to interpret it in a Christian way. That might be were the author's coming from, but if you reject everything of religious origin in this life you're not gonna end up with much. Just take what you can from it. Granted sometimes it's just too much to bear but...

It's been years since I read it but as I recall it was a wonderful, straightforward story about taking life in stride. I loved the part where our shepard met another alchemist, and that alchemist's life got him gold and immortality and so many wonders...but that was not our mc's life, and he accepted that and went on to his meager treasure. In many ways I think that idea, that everyone has a different journey in life, and the larger idea that it will be a winding road to get there, has stayed with me over the years. When people say they're jealous of so-and-so billionaire or something, I can't say I am at all. Everyone's going somewhere different, and everyone suffers. You just have to focus on your path.

That kind of rambled on..but there's a beautiful attitude in The Alchemist, and I enjoyed it very much.

Haven't read anything else by him, but I've meant to. Next time I get a library card, maybe.

eh. it was okay. -shrugs-