VAYANOTSAVAM 2016

BOOK REVIEW

The Alchemist by    Paulo    Coelho

(Prepared by: Smt. Rethnabhai, Lecturer, DIET, Kannur.)

Author Profile

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian author (1946-present) who has gained a massive international fan base with inspirational novels such as The Alchemist (1988), The Zahir (2005), and Aleph (2010). Often, Coelho’s main characters are individuals who depart from social routines and decide to embrace transformative, challenging life experiences—decide to live out their “Personal Legends,” to borrow a phrase Coelho uses throughout The Alchemist. This belief in initiative and self-inquiry has roots in Coelho’s own life of travel, change, and uncertainty. Many of his novels—including his absolute first, The Pilgrimage (1988)—are strongly autobiographical, yet Coelho also situates his work in a broader tradition of individualistic Latin American literature. Coelho’s The Zahir and Aleph both take their names from stories by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, one of the best-known experimental authors of the 20th century.

Coelho was born into a middle-class family in Rio de Janeiro. He attended schools run by the Jesuits in accordance with the wishes of his parents, who were devout Catholics. However, Coelho was a willful and rebellious child. He aspired to a career as a writer—a career that his father, a pragmatic engineer, found wholly undesirable. In his late teens, Coelho was committed to a psychiatric institution by his parents, who interpreted his literary ambitions as a sign of insanity. In 1967, Coelho reached an understanding with his parents and, in order to fulfill their standards for a practical and respectable profession, entered law school. However, he continued to pursue an artistic, unconventional lifestyle. In 1970 he left law school and traveled widely in Latin America, Africa, and Europe. He returned to Brazil after a few years, immersed himself in the country’s counter-cultural scene, and wrote a series of well-liked pop songs. Coelho’s artistic activities brought him fame within his own country, yet Coelho’s liberal political stances offended Brazil’s authoritarian government. He was repeatedly jailed and tortured during the early 1970s

By the mid 1970s, Coelho’s life had settled down. As Coelho himself describes this period, “I married someone in church, got a job. I was normal for seven years. I could not stand to be normal.” Coelho’s first marriage ended in divorce, and by 1980 Coelho had formed a new marriage with the artist Christina Oiticica, who remains Coelho’s wife to this day. Coelho also reached a spiritual turning point in his life around 1986, when he left Brazil behind and embarked upon a 500-mile walking journey to Santiago de Compostela, a site visited by Christian pilgrims. This experience was the basis for Coelho’s book The Pilgrimage. Coelho’s next book, The Alchemist, would return to the themes of travel and spiritual awakening—but would also deal with legendary characters and supernatural forces. This heavily symbolic tale of self-discovery was not an immediate success. Written during a few weeks in 1988, The Alchemist would only become famous in the early 1990s, when the book became a hit with French readers.

Ever since the commercial success of The Alchemist, Coelho has produced approximately one book every two years. Coelho’s novels have confronted some bleak themes—such as obsession in The Zahir and suicide in Veronika Decides to Die (1998)—yet Coelho himself is committed to a mission of self-help and social activism. In 1996, he founded the Paulo Coelho Institute—which gives “opportunities to the under privileged and ostracized members of Brazilian society.”

Today, Coelho’s novels are available in over seventy languages. He has sold over 140 million books, and The alchemist has been issued in a deluxe illustrated edition. While Coelho has been honored by the United Nations -which named him a UN Messenger of Peace, he has also increased his fan base by granting frequent interviews and by utilizing social media.

Book Review:

Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is the story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy content to wander through the Spanish fields and towns with his faithful flock until a recurring dream about finding his treasure at the Pyramids of Egypt rousts him from complacency. In trying to understand his dream, Santiago encounters a wise old man who calls himself Melchizedek, the King of Salem, who sets the boy off on a quest to discover his Personal Legend. It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their Personal Legend."Thus spurred on by the mysterious stranger, Santiago abandons his shepherd life to this adventure of discovery. He crosses from Spain into Tangiers and further, paying heed to the omens and surmounting obstacles along the way.Paulo Coelho's story is a short -163 pages-and simple one, an inspirational parable about the importance of pursuing one's dreams. Originally published in 1988 in the Brazillian author's native Portugese, it has since been translated in close to 70 languages and has become one of the best-selling books in history. The Alchemist is a quick and enjoyable reminder for anyone who feels they have become distracted from pursuing their own Personal Legend.

STORY IN BRIEF

While sleeping near a sycamore tree in the sacristy of an abandoned church, Santiago, a shepherd boy, has a recurring dream about a child who tells him that he will find a hidden treasure if he travels to the Egyptian pyramids. An old woman tells Santiago that this dream is prophetic and that he must follow its instructions. Santiago is uncertain, however, since he enjoys the life of a shepherd.Next Santiago meets a mysterious old man who seems able to read his mind. This man introduces himself as Melchizedek, or the King of Salem. He tells Santiago about good and bad omens and says that it is the shepherd boy's duty to pursue his Personal Legend. Melchizedek then gives Santiago two stones, Urim and Thummim, with which to interpret omens.Santiago wavers briefly before selling his flock and purchasing a ticket to Tangier, in northern Africa, to which he travels by boat. Shortly after he arrives there, a thief steals all of Santiago's money, so the shepherd boy decides to look for a way to make enough money to return home. He finds work in the shop of a crystal merchant, where Santiago makes improvements that reap considerable financial rewards.After eleven months of working in the shop, Santiago is unsure of how to proceed. Should he return to Andalusia a rich man and buy more sheep? Or should he cross the vast Sahara in pursuit of the hidden treasure of his dreams? He joins a caravan traveling to Egypt.

Santiago meets an Englishman who wants to learn the secret of alchemy, or turning any metal into gold, from a famous alchemist who lives at an oasis on the way to the pyramids. While traveling, Santiago begins listening to the desert and discovering the Soul of the World. The caravan eventually reaches the oasis, and there Santiago meets an Arab girl named Fatima and falls in love with her instantly. The caravan leader gathers the travelers together and tells them that tribal warfare prevents them from continuing their journey.Santiago wanders from the oasis into the desert and, seeing two hawks fighting in the sky, has a vision of an army entering the oasis. Because attacking an oasis is a violation of the rules of the desert, Santiago shares his vision with the oasis's tribal chieftain. Soon afterward, Santiago is confronted by a black-garbed, veiled stranger with a sword, who sits atop a white horse. It is the alchemist. The tribal chieftain arms his men, and they are well-prepared when the oasis is indeed invaded. The alchemist offers to cross the desert with Santiago.Soon the two men enter into an area of intense tribal warfare. Warriors hold the two men captive, but eventually allow them to continue their journey. The alchemist tells Santiago that he needs to return to the oasis, and that the rest of the trip is Santiago's to make alone so that he can claim his Personal Legend.

Santiago arrives at the Egyptian pyramids and begins to dig. He finds nothing buried in the ground. Thieves beat Santiago and rob him of his money. After he tells them of his dream, though, one of the thieves recounts his own dream about a buried treasure in the sacristy of an abandoned church.Returning to Andalusia, Santiago goes back to the church where he dreamed of the treasure near the pyramids. He digs where he slept, beneath a sycamore tree, and there it is: Santiago's treasure.