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.
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 💀