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jennifer_c_s 's review for:
The Zahir
by Paulo Coelho
‘There are two kinds of world: the one we dream about and the real one.’
In this novel, an unnamed, internationally famous author is left by his wife Esther, suddenly and without explanation. He becomes obsessed with Esther’s disappearance: she becomes ‘the Zahir’ and haunts him day and night. (According to information in the novel a Zahir is someone or something which, once we have come into contact with them or it, gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else. The word, Zahir, is Arabic).
It isn’t clear where Esther has gone, nor is it clear why she has left, and the narrator is suspected of playing some role in her disappearance. He wonders whether she has been abducted, or has she abandoned their marriage? And, if she has abandoned their marriage, what is his role in this? Even though the narrator forms other relationships once Esther leaves, he is unable to move beyond her. He may (sometimes) be satisfied, but he is incomplete. Eventually, with the help of Mikhail (one of Esther’s friends) the narrator comes to realise that he has to find himself in order to find her.
And so, the narrator embarks on his own personal odyssey to find Esther. He learns that she is living in a village in the steppes of Kazakhstan weaving carpets, and teaching French. On his journey from Paris to Kazakhstan the narrator explores various different meanings of love and of life. In this odyssey, the narrator becomes a modern somewhat muted version of Ulysses with different heroic attributes. The original Ulysses’s physicality is replaced with a newly found sensitivity. The journey and the outcome may be similar in some ways but the process of arriving at the outcome is very different. Likewise, while there are similarities between Esther and Penelope, Esther has established a life which she can live without the narrator. The differences between the odysseys are as important as the similarities.
I liked this novel. I especially liked the way the narrator came to realise what mattered in his life, and why.
‘We humans have two great problems: the first is knowing when to begin, the second is knowing when to stop.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In this novel, an unnamed, internationally famous author is left by his wife Esther, suddenly and without explanation. He becomes obsessed with Esther’s disappearance: she becomes ‘the Zahir’ and haunts him day and night. (According to information in the novel a Zahir is someone or something which, once we have come into contact with them or it, gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else. The word, Zahir, is Arabic).
It isn’t clear where Esther has gone, nor is it clear why she has left, and the narrator is suspected of playing some role in her disappearance. He wonders whether she has been abducted, or has she abandoned their marriage? And, if she has abandoned their marriage, what is his role in this? Even though the narrator forms other relationships once Esther leaves, he is unable to move beyond her. He may (sometimes) be satisfied, but he is incomplete. Eventually, with the help of Mikhail (one of Esther’s friends) the narrator comes to realise that he has to find himself in order to find her.
And so, the narrator embarks on his own personal odyssey to find Esther. He learns that she is living in a village in the steppes of Kazakhstan weaving carpets, and teaching French. On his journey from Paris to Kazakhstan the narrator explores various different meanings of love and of life. In this odyssey, the narrator becomes a modern somewhat muted version of Ulysses with different heroic attributes. The original Ulysses’s physicality is replaced with a newly found sensitivity. The journey and the outcome may be similar in some ways but the process of arriving at the outcome is very different. Likewise, while there are similarities between Esther and Penelope, Esther has established a life which she can live without the narrator. The differences between the odysseys are as important as the similarities.
I liked this novel. I especially liked the way the narrator came to realise what mattered in his life, and why.
‘We humans have two great problems: the first is knowing when to begin, the second is knowing when to stop.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith