Part One

Okay, i think it has to do with my translation which is crap. I think if I could read it in the original Portuguese, there would be an improvement. So, taking that into account, I will not comment on the style of the book which in my version is rather stilted and monotonous. I blame Alan R. Clarke, translator.

I like fable and allegories. Pilgrim's Progress and the mystery and miracle plays from the medieval times, I've always enjoyed even if sometimes they seem a little silly. Sometimes a little too 'in your face' with what you are supposed to believe or take from the text. Didactic or preachy. But I've never been annoyed by it.

The first adjective that came to mind as I read it was 'self-important.' Either Coelho thinks the world about himself or he's overdoing it to make a point about something I haven't figured out yet.

Example: "It's a book that says the same thing almost all the other books in the world say," continued the old man. "It describes people's inability to choose their won Personal Legends. And it ends up saying that everyone believes the world's greatest lie."

Okay, did that bug anyone else? I interpreted that as "Well, I will do what all the other books haven't done." Or "I am better than all the other books." Or am I looking too much into it?

Another like it: "If he ever wrote a book, he thought, he would present one person at a time, so that the reader wouldn't have to wrorry about memorizing a lot of names."

Thank you, shepherd or should I say, Mr. Coelho.

I find The Alchemist didactic. Telling me what I should think. The old man, the king is long-winded and says nothing that is at all life-changing. But that could just be me.

The boy's attitude gets to me as well (but maybe he will grow in character and this is the stuff he grows out of)

"He was sure that it made no difference to her on which day he appeared: for her, every day was the same, and when each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises."

Isn't he the know-it-all? Judgmental. So a simple life is a lack of appreciation of life?

"The sale of his sheep had left him with enough money in his pouch, and the boy knew that in money there was magic; whoever has money is never really alone."

I really hope he grows out of that one.

"Most of them he had read in books, but he would tell them as if they were from his personal experience. She would never know the difference, because she didn't know how to read."

So, let's lie to the girl he loves and also judge her because she hasn't learned to read. Is that her fault?

What was the point of the old woman who interpreted his dream? I mean, even the boy thinks that she doesn't tell him anything except to make literal the dream. I thought that seemed weak story-wise.

And the old man with his wisdom. I get that he pushes the boy to make a decision. But what does he do? Takes one-tenth of the boy's sheep for payment for a little advice? I don't get that.

One quote I did like once I thought about it: "In the long run, what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own Personal Legends."

I think sometimes we can be talked out of our hopes and dreams by what others think. Not that all our dreams and goals will ever be reaches, but it's good to have them anyway.

Hopefully a lot of this will make sense by the end, but I'm frustrated at the moment with the story as well as the characters.