I recently finished The Alchemist for the first time. I thought it was good. Straightforward and entertaining (imo). I thought that would be the general opinion of people about the Alchemist and that Coelho is revered by book readers. But I was honestly surprised to find out majority of the readers don’t like his work and think of him as a ‘mediocre’ writer. Is there something I don’t know? Why isn’t he highly esteemed amongst bibliophiles like I thought he was?
P.S. I also think that the writing in Alchemist could’ve been better, but I liked the story.
I tried to read his book Aleph which is auto-biographical book, where his character travels the trans-Siberian railway. The train stops on one station and he goes begging with a friend to tame his ego. All I could think that he’s such a dick for begging because that is money that somebody could have given to a real poor beggar instead of some millionaire author.
I know that this has nothing to do with his writing abilities but I just hate books where the characters are arseholes. And the fact that he himself might have done something like that, made me annoyed. I really hate those kind of “spiritual teachers” who do whatever they want to grow in their “spirituality” even if they hurt someone else in the process. If he wanted to tame his ego, why not just give 99% of your money away? He still would have plenty of money to live and it probably would have hurted his ego more.
End of rant
Because it’s drivel.
I like The Alchemist a lot. Lot of redditors hate it. I liked it because unlike most books that draw you into their world, The Alchemist gave me the urge to get up and go outside and engage with the real world, an invaluable quality imo
This. Made New York City somehow even more magical upon all the schooling and working to be done
I thought it was a sweet book. Sure it might not be Dostoevsky but it’s strange to me that so many people scoff at it. Seems like a lot of people get on their high-horses to feel better about themselves.
There are lots of valid criticisms voiced here about the book, if you would bother to read them.
The only person getting on a high horse to feel better about themselves is you, by criticizing everyone who doesn’t like the book. Your lack of discernment does not an argument make.
Let’s start with the obvious: the book’s philosophical message has all the substance of a motivational cat poster. It’s a loose collection of ersatz axioms that are intended to sound profound, but are really just insubstantial fluff that cannot survive thirty seconds of serious examination. The essential ingredients are fate, theism, and optimism laced together with new age mysticism.
The regressive portrayal of women is irritating, but the rest of the book was so inane I barely had the energy to be annoyed by it.
Above all: the writing is terrible. Be prepared to sigh tiredly, again and again, as the author eschews all subtlety or nuance, and capitalizes every Important Concept to help you achieve Deep Understanding. There are no characters in this book, only wooden mouthpieces for would-be revelation.
It’s essentially a motivational self-help book with a fairy tale vibe. Fine if you want that, but I think people dislike the book so intensely because they’re expecting literature and they get…that.
I agree with everything you have said! I scoffed at the part where Fatima says something like “I am a woman of the desert… But i am a woman above all”. Like what was blud thinking while writing that 💀
I have never DNF’ed a book, except for The Alchemist.
Someone always says this, this time it is my chance.
Alchemist can be either utter garbage or best book you ever read based on where are you currently in life. That is it. It serves as mirror to your own mind and makes you think.
Regardless of other people’s opinion I enjoyed reading his books :)
Regardless of other people’s opinion I enjoyed reading his books :)
The only book of his that I like is “Veronika decides to die”
I have a theory that the first Paulo Coelho book you read is great. The second one you read is okay, but not as good as the first one. And then on the third book, you realize everything he writes is basically the same book with only slight variations in the pseudo-spiritual drivel.
I absolutely love the English audio book version of the Alchemist.
I didn’t like The Alchemist at all
The Alchemist was wildly popular, especially amongst women. I swear, every wannabe yoga teacher circa 2000 had a copy next to their copy of The Four Agreements. ‘New Age’ had gone from super popular to a performative exoticism that verged on cultural appropriation, and there was a backlash against it.
Personally, I didn’t hate The Alchemist but also didn’t love it. Coelho supposedly only wrote it in two weeks, and that checks out. I picked up a copy in Spanish while on vacation in Costa Rica—I don’t speak Portuguese so Spanish was the closest I could get to the original. It was worse in Spanish though.
Tried to like him but couldn’t for the reasons others have noted, essentially shallowness. He reminded me of Richard Bach of Jonathan Livingston Seagull fame.
I didn’t like any thing about that book. I thought it was trite.