In honor of Paulo Coelho's new novel The Spy, which is currently sitting in a package by my door, I want to go back in time to review his some of his novels. As a Paulo Coelho fan, I will be the first to tell you that it is impossible to pinpoint "the best five" or even a "top ten" of his novels. Each of his literary journeys is a work of art in its own right, precisely because his writing style and themes are everchanging
So I'm writing this "Top Five" list with a twist - the books on this list are Coelho's most thought-provoking pieces, often controversial, and always incomplete without some serious brain activity on the reader's behalf. Bring your self-reflection and self-awareness to the table!
At the risk of being cliche, I have to include The Alchemist on the list. Really, no Paulo Coelho list is complete without this, his most famous novel. The Alchemist is a gateway book into the rich literary world of Coelho's spirituality, philosophy, and overall Zen.
While this novel is fairly short and easy to read, taking a couple of hours to get through, the themes and characters will stick in your mind for weeks to come. The beauty of Coelho's simplistic philosophy of life is that it is insanely relatable. The main character is a shepherd boy on a physical and spiritual journey around the Sahara desert in search of his Personal Legends. And yet the main character is all of us. As soon as we close the book upon completion, we can't help but plunge into our own spiritual journey in search of our Personal Legends.
Quote for self-reflection:
"What's the world's greatest lie?" the boy asked, completely surprised.
The Devil and Miss Prym is a take on a class trope of angel vs. devil on your shoulders. This half-parable half-psychological thriller follows a handful of characters in small forgotten town through the greatest temptation of their lives. As you see the characters develop before your eyes, you'll have plenty of opportunities to stop and ask yourself - What would you do? The classic temptation scenarios include - would you kill one person to benefit hundreds? Would you make that choice yourself or bring it to everyone's attention? How and who would you choose to kill? Slip on Miss Prym's small-town shoes and look deep within yourself to uncover an angel or a devil.
Quote for self-reflection:
I discovered that confronted by temptation, we will always fall. Given the right circumstances, every human being on this earth would be willing to commit evil.
The Winner Stands Alone is one of Coelho's later works. Unlike some of his earlier prose, where the plot and characters are vague and merely vehicles for delivering the morals of the story, this novel has a fully fleshed out plot and almost a dozen of fully developed characters. The storylines and characters start off being very different, the common thread being their location at Cannes Film Festival. As the action progresses and the themes slowly uncover themselves, we realize that this is a story about naked greed and ambition - for money, for fame, for love, for lust, for power. We can't help but questions ourselves - what is our brand of greed and how would we chase it given the possibility?
Quote for self-reflection:
One of the iconic literary pieces on depression and anxiety, Veronika Decides to Die is uplifting against all odds. As products of our environment who have battled mental fatigue, oppressing sadness, or overwhelming melancholy, we can all relate to the patients in the mental institutions who suffer from both too much and too little desire to live. The novel centers around Veronika and her failed suicide attempt, but the supporting characters give Veronika's story depth and meaning.
This novel has one of the most beautiful hypotheticals of any Coelho work - how would you live if your days were numbered? What would you do with your last hours on Earth?
Quote for self-reflection:
The happier people can be, the unhappier they are.
Going down the memory lane of Coelho bibliography made me all the more anxious to get started on The Spy. Share your thoughts in the comment below!
So I'm writing this "Top Five" list with a twist - the books on this list are Coelho's most thought-provoking pieces, often controversial, and always incomplete without some serious brain activity on the reader's behalf. Bring your self-reflection and self-awareness to the table!
At the risk of being cliche, I have to include The Alchemist on the list. Really, no Paulo Coelho list is complete without this, his most famous novel. The Alchemist is a gateway book into the rich literary world of Coelho's spirituality, philosophy, and overall Zen.
While this novel is fairly short and easy to read, taking a couple of hours to get through, the themes and characters will stick in your mind for weeks to come. The beauty of Coelho's simplistic philosophy of life is that it is insanely relatable. The main character is a shepherd boy on a physical and spiritual journey around the Sahara desert in search of his Personal Legends. And yet the main character is all of us. As soon as we close the book upon completion, we can't help but plunge into our own spiritual journey in search of our Personal Legends.
Quote for self-reflection:
"What's the world's greatest lie?" the boy asked, completely surprised.
"It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."
The Devil and Miss Prym is a take on a class trope of angel vs. devil on your shoulders. This half-parable half-psychological thriller follows a handful of characters in small forgotten town through the greatest temptation of their lives. As you see the characters develop before your eyes, you'll have plenty of opportunities to stop and ask yourself - What would you do? The classic temptation scenarios include - would you kill one person to benefit hundreds? Would you make that choice yourself or bring it to everyone's attention? How and who would you choose to kill? Slip on Miss Prym's small-town shoes and look deep within yourself to uncover an angel or a devil.
Quote for self-reflection:
I discovered that confronted by temptation, we will always fall. Given the right circumstances, every human being on this earth would be willing to commit evil.
The Winner Stands Alone is one of Coelho's later works. Unlike some of his earlier prose, where the plot and characters are vague and merely vehicles for delivering the morals of the story, this novel has a fully fleshed out plot and almost a dozen of fully developed characters. The storylines and characters start off being very different, the common thread being their location at Cannes Film Festival. As the action progresses and the themes slowly uncover themselves, we realize that this is a story about naked greed and ambition - for money, for fame, for love, for lust, for power. We can't help but questions ourselves - what is our brand of greed and how would we chase it given the possibility?
Quote for self-reflection:
People are never satisfied. If they have a little, they want more. If they have a lot, they want still more. Once they have more, they wish they could be happy with little, but are incapable of making the slightest effort in that direction.
At the first glance, The Zahir is a novel about a failed marriage and the narrator's best efforts to reconcile with the estranged spouse.
At the second glance, this is a semi-memoir about the inability to fully and completely understand another human being, a human being you should be able to understand better than anyone else - your spouse.
As the glances continue and you layer your own experience with romantic relationship on top of what the narrator provides, you start realizing that the main mistake anyone can make in a romantic relationship is to not understand themselves.
And so it goes.
Quote for self-reflection:
Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose - and commit myself to - what is best for me.
One of the iconic literary pieces on depression and anxiety, Veronika Decides to Die is uplifting against all odds. As products of our environment who have battled mental fatigue, oppressing sadness, or overwhelming melancholy, we can all relate to the patients in the mental institutions who suffer from both too much and too little desire to live. The novel centers around Veronika and her failed suicide attempt, but the supporting characters give Veronika's story depth and meaning.
This novel has one of the most beautiful hypotheticals of any Coelho work - how would you live if your days were numbered? What would you do with your last hours on Earth?
Quote for self-reflection:
The happier people can be, the unhappier they are.
Going down the memory lane of Coelho bibliography made me all the more anxious to get started on The Spy. Share your thoughts in the comment below!
0 comments:
Post a Comment