Book Review

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night. "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." 

I am reviewing a book that I have read before in another life. Fairly recently, we purchased book shelves, so for the first time in years I finally have most of my books out. Since, I have accumulated more since getting them, there is overflow but I have unpacked books that I haven't seen in years and even forgot I owned. One is the book I am going to review.  It was given to me by someone that at one time was a very important part of my life. He wanted me to read it because he wanted me to understand what he was going through. He felt very strongly that he was on a path but he wasn't sure what it was,  but that he was in pursuit of his personal legend. So I read this book in the hopes that I could gain understanding. That was then. Now I reread it with only myself in mind. I wanted to see if more mature eyes could make something new of it. Something that would help me right now by putting me in touch with the person I was so long ago that first picked up this story and still had hope for achieving my own personal legend.

In essence the book is a fable with healthy doses of deus ex machina. It concerns the fate of a boy named Santiago living in Spain during an unspecified time. He is a lowly shepherd and contented to be so until he has a chance meeting with a king who sets him upon a hero's journey to find a treasure. It is also a coming of age. During the course of his journey he meets a gypsy woman, a crystal merchant, and an Englishman. But none are as important than Fatima, the woman that he almost gives up his quest for. With the help and advice of the alchemist, of the title, he is able to reach his goal.

The treasure was not so much the riches at the end of the rainbow but the journey itself. It is what he learned about himself and others. That by not following your dreams is so much worse than the fear that you might not get there. By giving up on your dreams, by letting fear hold you back, you have doomed yourself to a lifetime of longing and a kind of existential death. The story tells you to open your mind to the wonders around you that will allow you to see omens and listen to and learn from the voice in your heart. Although this is a simple book, written simply it is for the reader to divine the message woven into the words. Each person will take from it what they will, or what they need. It is not a literary masterpiece, the characters aren't fleshed out enough to really get to know them or love them. But, it is appropriate for what it is. As you get older it is so easy to get absorbed into the minutia of life, to forget that it is wondrous and full of beauty if only you could see it. I like books and movies that remind me to open my eyes and my heart to the gifts that this life has to offer. That you are never to old to surprise yourself.  I doubt that I will ever succeed at finding my own personal legend, not even sure if I know what it is,  but I will try to never give up. This, as I said is a fable, and an effective one. It is a small book and a quick read but the lessons can last a lifetime.