Cassiopaean Sandbox > Books

Paulo Coelho

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Aya:

--- Quote from: Zadius Sky on April 25, 2012, 05:15:24 PM ---From the first impression, it have to do with the author's unresolved past-life issues with the little girl, and about forgiving and love, but really it showed the author's strong lust for the girl. It's also adultery, wouldn't it? I am wondering how his wife would react to this book. He could be having a mid-life crisis.
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I was also wondering what his wife’s first impression for this book was. He probably wrote the experiences open with his best honestly, but he was not successful conveying the importance of this journey as he claims it to be.

He says that this Siberian journey was special in a sense, because it was the point of his “transition” for finding some answers about life, although he didn’t explain well how the experience changed him. It really makes readers think that he was unhappy despite he was successful publishing books, and he became happy/got in touch with self again after he met this young girl because she was in love with him and followed him exclusively to the point they created a special bond between each other; even though he was quite annoyed by the girl’s behaviour at the beginning.


--- Quote from: Zadius Sky on April 25, 2012, 05:15:24 PM ---I was surprised to see the author's nature: obvious character flaws and how "willingness" he shared about that, and he even comes off as a bit of a narcissist and an egoist. And, here I am, thinking how I admired his works over the years...
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I was also admired his work, too but with “Aleph” I was disappointed to read on his experiences where he was utterly unaware about his actions and behaviours.
At the same time, I was surprised that it took four years to write this book..


--- Quote from: Zadius Sky on April 25, 2012, 05:15:24 PM ---I felt skeptical about that "exercise" but he was right about one thing. Anything with "imagining" a light of some form does bring "dramatic and disastrous consequences." It kinda like being a "beacon" for those nasty critters.
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Yes, And this is exactly what it seems like it happened.

Zadius Sky:
Just wanted to mention that Coelho published his latest book, entitled Manuscript Found in Accra. Yesterday, while I was browsing Barnes and Noble, I noticed this book on the newly-arrived table and thought to myself, "Already?" I read it right there and then (but didn't buy it, too pricy). It was "supposed" to come out on the 2nd of April.

It is fairly a short read.

From the Amazon's "Book Description:"


--- Quote ---There is nothing wrong with anxiety.
Although we cannot control God’s time, it is part of the human condition to want to receive the thing we are waiting for as quickly as possible.
Or to drive away whatever is causing our fear. . . .
Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms.
 
***
 
July 14, 1099. Jerusalem awaits the invasion of the crusaders who have surrounded the city’s gates. There, inside the ancient city’s walls, men and women of every age and every faith have gathered to hear the wise words of a mysterious man known only as the Copt. He has summoned the townspeople to address their fears with truth:

“Tomorrow, harmony will become discord. Joy will be replaced by grief. Peace will give way to war. . . . None of us can know what tomorrow will hold, because each day has its good and its bad moments. So, when you ask your questions, forget about the troops outside and the fear inside. Our task is not to leave a record of what happened on this date for those who will inherit the Earth; history will take care of that. Therefore, we will speak about our daily lives, about the difficulties we have had to face.”

The people begin with questions about defeat, struggle, and the nature of their enemies; they contemplate the will to change and the virtues of loyalty and solitude; and they ultimately turn to questions of beauty, love, wisdom, sex, elegance, and what the future holds. “What is success?” poses the Copt. “It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace.”
 
***
 
Now, these many centuries later, the wise man’s answers are a record of the human values that have endured throughout time. And, in Paulo Coelho’s hands, The Manuscript Found in Accra reveals that who we are, what we fear, and what we hope for the future come from the knowledge and belief that can be found within us, and not from the adversity that surrounds us.

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It's a pretty quick reading; the spacing within makes it so that one can read up to five pages before another chapter reveals itself. It doesn't really have anything to do with it being a "novel" (hardly a "story" involved) but more like a philosophic/spiritual teachings and lectures about how to live life, obviously from the mouth of a spiritual man called "The Copt" in 1099 at the city of Jerusalem on the eve before the Crusades. It's basically a question-answer platform - the various townspeople (mixed of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim living peacefully together) gather around Copt while he shares his "wisdom" about everything: love, anxiety, loyalty, nature, sex, etc. It almost as if the author is "preaching."

Personally, it has that similar flavor to Khalil Gibran's works - not only that, it follows the similar pattern of one of author's previous books, A Manual for the Warrior of Light (which is basically a collection of wisdom sayings and advices about several life topics).

Some of the "sayings" in this book can be interesting while others give one a risen eye-brow. Overall, it didn't have much in a way of new insights - it's felt like a re-telling of old wisdom and what have you. I was hoping for another book much like his The Alchemist, but not this time.

fwiw.

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