Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ohnoitscoco 's review for:
The Zahir
by Paulo Coelho
I didn't know how to feel about this book for a while, but I kept reading because, as always, I enjoyed Coelho's style. There were a couple messages that I didn't agree with--like the narrator's approach to marriage where people are 'obliged' to stay married instead of really wanting to. Just being like train tracks that must stay the same width apart, and therefore there's no real growth possible. The first-person, vaguely autobiographical way the book is written really threw me for a while too.
But overall, it ended up being very thought-provoking. The concept of the acomadador--Spanish for the point in one's life where they give up their desires and settle for what they have--really stood out for me. While the subtitle is "A Novel of Obsession", it really becomes a story about letting go--of everything, not just the narrator's runaway wife--and how only through that act of release can things that never were in your life before rush in to fill the vaccuum, like new experiences and truer love. (June 2009)
But overall, it ended up being very thought-provoking. The concept of the acomadador--Spanish for the point in one's life where they give up their desires and settle for what they have--really stood out for me. While the subtitle is "A Novel of Obsession", it really becomes a story about letting go--of everything, not just the narrator's runaway wife--and how only through that act of release can things that never were in your life before rush in to fill the vaccuum, like new experiences and truer love. (June 2009)