"The Alchemist" book review.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho was recommended to me by a close friend who knows I get into coming-of-age tales of young men, especially ones that leave the reader in contemplation. It doesn't hurt if the author can intermingle references from various religions, societies, governments, or anything else that would have sacred text. I had high hopes when I purchased this book (from Village Books--you should go there), and deflated them early.

The story centers on a young shepherd named Santiago, who leaves his familiar life behind for a journey into unknown land, among unknown people, for a mostly unknown reason. He continually finds himself taking direction from omens, and older men who speak truth into his life. He knows that he seeks a treasure on an entirely different continent, but that is all he has to go off of. Along the way he heeds wisdom from a gypsy, a hobo, an old englishman, a camel driver, a crystal shop owner, and finally (you guessed it), an alchemist. I wish I could say that his interactions with these people were really stimulating and you could see the ways they were changing him as you read them, but they were all essentially the same person, just chopped up into different characters. They all spoke in the same manner, about the same matter, and viewed the boy exactly the same. I was bored by this.

Santiago is on a quest. He is learning, questioning, doubting, finding, failing, succeeding, all at once. It's a story we've heard a million times before. He's nobody special, but he undertakes a special journey, and that leads to the writing of a special book, for special people, to inspire them to find special purpose for their special lives. It's a very special experience.

I think what attracts people to this story is the romantic language Coelho uses while dealing with the same crap we talk about all the time. Coelho uses references straight from the Bible, some muslim doctrine, and even the story of Joseph Smith. While this probably impresses some people, all one would have to do to obtain these references is type each reference point into Wikipedia and see what other words come up. So the references were boring, too. At least to me.

Is this a book review, really? I think what I am trying to convey is that the book is nice, kind of romantically written, easy to read, and therefore boring. If you're looking for a sweet little packaged story of self-definition, pick it up. If that'll bore you, move right along. Thanks for reading my bitchin' and moanin'.

-HVC