Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist

[Fred]

All you need do is "try" to read one of his books. All the others have the same plot!

[Miriam]

why are you so radikally? Don't you like his books at all?

[Mirabell]

why are you so radikally? Don't you like his books at all?

nobody likes them. they're like consensual shit.

[Daniel del Real]

why are you so radikally? Don't you like his books at all?

I really hate them, it's garbage.

[Bjorn]

why are you so radikally? Don't you like his books at all?

I've only ever read this one. But nope. What's to like?

[Miriam]

I understand. Now I take the neutral position, I've read few his books. Mmm... some ideas are not bad, more than that, ideas of some books are quite ok. Speaking about books... I was a teenager, when I read them, but at whole I liked just one book: "The Devil and Miss Prym" Now, as a philologist, I prefer to take neutral position as some ideas, as I've told. I see nothing bad in books, but I see nothing very exciting

[Raphael Lambach]

If you're reading it in English, you may have an extra bonus: friends have told me his translators greatly improve the quality of his prose, which is atrocious in Portuguese.

Unfourtunely, Paulo's Portuguese isn't as good as it should be.
In Brazil, Paulo is never read in schools and the teachers say "Paulo Coelho cannot be considered literature".

[beelzebubbles]

This guy gives crap and pap a bad name. I am just surprised anyone reads a second (i can't call them novels) one.

[SlowRain]

Bjorn, I agree with your short version, however I was so underwhelmed by this novel that I can't even be bothered to read your long version nor the rest of the comments in this thread. (And it's perfectly okay if people are also equally underwhelmed to even bother reading my comments.)

I don't necessarily disagree with what Coelho wrote, I just hate that it was a two-page fable stretched out to about two hundred. He has a very bland writing style.

[edyta]

I was traveling in Central America this summer. I met a group of young (22-24 years old) women from Great Britain. One of them had a tattoo, an arabic writing on her ankle. It was a quote from The Alchemist. something about the universe giving you what you ask for. I wept.

[heidiadonis]

I read The Alchemist, but wasn't much impressed. I thought I gave him another chance by reading The Witch of Portobello which I did not even finish. The Witch of Portobello started well with descriptions of a woman by various people and their impressions on her. It tanked with some sort of cult-like dance obsession. I gave up on him.

[Daniel del Real]

I was traveling in Central America this summer. I met a group of young (22-24 years old) women from Great Britain. One of them had a tattoo, an arabic writing on her ankle. It was a quote from The Alchemist. something about the universe giving you what you ask for. I wept.

Time to quote Conrad,
"The Horror, the horror"

[Victor Pomp]

If you're reading it in English, you may have an extra bonus: friends have told me his translators greatly improve the quality of his prose, which is atrocious in Portuguese.

Yeah. We say, here in Brazil, that his wide acceptance over the world is completely due to his translators, who take a lot of time making the book readable. Here, he is not only considered to be a bad writer, but, reading his originals, we can even find out his complete lack of dominance over his own language.

[Raphael Lambach]

Yeah. We say, here in Brazil, that his wide acceptance over the world is completely due to his translators, who take a lot of time making the book readable. Here, he is not only considered to be a bad writer, but, reading his originals, we can even find out his complete lack of dominance over his own language.

Victor, you're completely right. I read "The Alchimist" years ago and I've found many Portuguese mistakes in Coelho's book. If we talk about quality Coelho is not one of best writters, however if we talk about how many people - around the world - read his book... it'd be amazing. In literature class on school, we don't learn about Paulo Coelho work.

[DouglasM]

Paulo Coelho is worse than kidney stones.

Yes, I have nothing to add to the thread that hasn't been said before. His translators perform miracles.

[Raphael Lambach]

bullshit....

[peter_d]

It's facinating that people here put so much energy in Paulo Coelho-bashing. What usually happens with writers who are really terribly brutally bad (as is suggested by some people here) is that they are completely neglected. He must have been doing at least s?mething right... judging from his popularity.

Hard for me to give any judgements though. I only read one of his books, Veronica decides to die. And I hardly dare say it, but... I didn't even dislike it all that much. At least not as much as I should have perhaps.

[saliotthomas]

I can't speak for the others and like you i read only one of his books, his "masterpiece " the achemist, but what bothered me was the pseudo intellectual mystical or more to the point like Bjorn said, undercover self help book.
I respect honest crap and read a lot of it, but love too much good literature to have any indugence for frauds.
And Paulo is the leader of them all, a least we can grant his that.

[lenz]

Can't people tell books by their covers anymore? It's those gooey "spiritual" sunset colours and the promise that only a liar would make: that it will "change your life."

[Bjorn]

What usually happens with writers who are really terribly brutally bad (as is suggested by some people here) is that they are completely neglected.

If that were true, how come I just had to watch Bryan Adams sing at the Olympic opening ceremony?

He must have been doing at least s?mething right... judging from his popularity.

I'm not saying he's completely untalented. Consistently playing to the lowest common denominator is, undoubtedly, a talent - something like the talent of McDonald's talent of coming up with new burgers that all taste like absolutely nothing, or Keanu Reeves' talent of... whatever it is he does for his producers to keep getting new roles. But what's the point of writing anything at all about anything at all (if you want to call it literary criticism or on-line ranting) if we cannot have a bit of fun by pointing out what separates good from bad, magic from one-penny-conjurer's tricks, gold from utter shit?