The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Short, simple and powerful. The reader is plunged into a sea of obvious and yet often forgotten life lessons and situations that almost feel like one has to unfocus the mind in order to get the true message of the story.
What intrigued me the most was the absence of the main character’s name throughout the entire story, which worked beautifully with the main premise behind its message. However, the character did not seem any less tangible or multidimensional, since the reader obtained the point of view of this character and thus his thoughts and opinions.
The language and writing was, as mentioned above, simple and at times I could detect that it was translated from a different language, but it suited the style of the narration and the overall ambience of the story. Throughout the book the author chose to use a number of certain key phrases repeatedly and even though I am not a fan of much repetition within a text, these became part of the larger premise and slowly faded into the development of the plot.
The plot was also simple and straight forward. I felt that the author’s intentions was not so much the creation of a fantastic plot, but more the journey that encompassed this plot.
The setting described was beautiful. The description contain enough detail to paint a picture in the mind’s eye without providing too much information.
The story did include a few important passages/story referrals to various religions; however they did not over take the overall premise of it.
Overall, it is a powerful story that would have any reader ponder life and one’s existence. I would recommend it to anyone, who is in the mood for a quick read with intellectual incitement.
