The latest book released from the celebrated Brazilian writer, was a huge disappointment, to say the least. Not sure if it is a new book, or it was translated to English recently.
Paulo Coelho, thread the path of the witchcraft, magic, spiritualism once again. After reading his last novel 'the witch of portobello' , this seems to have set in similar environment. Searching for one's own soul mate, the teacher , elaborated and meaningless rituals, and the similar playground in Ireland. The last one was set in England.
The novel follows Brida, 21 yr old Irish girl, in her quest for knowledge and wisdom. She is interested in the magic and its various form and wanted to know about the truth of the world. She meets a man in the deep of forest, who teaches her about overcoming fears and taking risks in life to follow one's own path. There is another teacher, who is a witch, takes her through the tarrot reading and to dance to the tune of the world. As she seeks her destiny and wisdom through teachers, one a man, who finds his soul mate in her , who practices the 'tradition of Sun, which helps the followers to learn things on their own; and the other a women , a witch, who practices the 'tradition of moon'.
Brida, as she seeks her knowledge and wisdom, trying to balance between the different traditions, , and the desire to become a witch. Wicca, the lady who practices the 'tradition of the moon' takes her through the process and rituals preparing her to become a witch. Novel ends with an elaborated ritual sequence at the end of which, Brida is conferred to the tradition of witches.
This has all the ingredients of a typical Paulo Coelho novel. Witchcraft, rituals , forces of nature, finding your own destiny, love, spirituality, re-incarnation , unlocking your Gift and what not. Weak story line, no insight apart from few sentences to be used at the end of your mail closing like , "if you want to learn about some thing, plunge in to it" or " life is about making mistake, the world move only on mistakes" etc..
Even for a hard fan of Paulo Coelho, this novel will be a let down. What was his last book which worth a mention ? " Devil and Miss Prym "?
Brida
Paulo Coelho
Harper Collins
266 Pages
Rs 295/-
Paulo Coelho, thread the path of the witchcraft, magic, spiritualism once again. After reading his last novel 'the witch of portobello' , this seems to have set in similar environment. Searching for one's own soul mate, the teacher , elaborated and meaningless rituals, and the similar playground in Ireland. The last one was set in England.
The novel follows Brida, 21 yr old Irish girl, in her quest for knowledge and wisdom. She is interested in the magic and its various form and wanted to know about the truth of the world. She meets a man in the deep of forest, who teaches her about overcoming fears and taking risks in life to follow one's own path. There is another teacher, who is a witch, takes her through the tarrot reading and to dance to the tune of the world. As she seeks her destiny and wisdom through teachers, one a man, who finds his soul mate in her , who practices the 'tradition of Sun, which helps the followers to learn things on their own; and the other a women , a witch, who practices the 'tradition of moon'.
Brida, as she seeks her knowledge and wisdom, trying to balance between the different traditions, , and the desire to become a witch. Wicca, the lady who practices the 'tradition of the moon' takes her through the process and rituals preparing her to become a witch. Novel ends with an elaborated ritual sequence at the end of which, Brida is conferred to the tradition of witches.
This has all the ingredients of a typical Paulo Coelho novel. Witchcraft, rituals , forces of nature, finding your own destiny, love, spirituality, re-incarnation , unlocking your Gift and what not. Weak story line, no insight apart from few sentences to be used at the end of your mail closing like , "if you want to learn about some thing, plunge in to it" or " life is about making mistake, the world move only on mistakes" etc..
Even for a hard fan of Paulo Coelho, this novel will be a let down. What was his last book which worth a mention ? " Devil and Miss Prym "?
Brida
Paulo Coelho
Harper Collins
266 Pages
Rs 295/-
5 comments:
Hey!
Yours is a wonderful blog :)
With your keen interest in reading and films, im sure you would enjoy being part of the Culturazzi Club- a club that strives to bring people in arts, cinema, literature, music and theater across the world together on a common platform, where they can share their thoughts, opinions, and interact with each other.
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Culturazzi
Thank you.
You have a good site and very interesting.
Jayan
The book is not new,it was completed 18 years ago, back in 1990, far before the author's fame is what it is now. It was the book that immediately came after the Alchemist.
Because of the situation then, by the birth of the novel, I doubt it was written out of commercial compulsion. It is not repetitive either considering that it was the first time he wrote about the topic with great depth, and that the years in between books with the occult as the central theme have reasonable distances.
You just read selective books from him in random order, and generalized their themes as a whole.
Hi, I thought as much about the time of writing. May be it was translated recently, or it could be a re-publication. Thanks for the correction.
I could be wrong on assuming and writing on the commercial aspect. Will correct the entry, but that does not change the fact that I wasn't all that impressed with this book.
I have read (and own) all the books translated into English, so far. I have liked many of his books, and found some of them pretty ordinary. Also, the judgement of a book, not necessarily be based on his own other works, but the work of fictions by other prominent writers I have read over the years. It also does not question his ability to write or his style, just that at the time of reading, I did not find this as appealing as some of the other books.
Thank you so much for visit and your candid opinion. I definitely would like to hear other opinion of this book and I do appreciate the facts that many people do like his writing.
I liked this book and many parts of it touched my heart. However, I wouldn't want somebody who hadn't read any of Coelho's books to pick this up and it be their first experience of the author.
The book was one of his earlier works and though the rituals and concepts are a little 'heavy', I think that they give a great insight to the author.
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