I have nothing against paulo coelho...may his grandchildren flourish in post-euro portugal but what I couldnt digest (or even completely swallow) is the high degree of slick yet diabetically sweet take on life and events. sufering leads to salvation and the types...the book was too demanding in values and ideals that are best buried today...it was not, to say the least, realistic in present day context...yeah I know there are probably countries where they worship him (and god save them)but his fiction is too coated with myriad dollops of something between an unrealised reality and a distantly dreadful dream...and his writing style is smooth, but not in a good way - much resemblant to a slow but ineveitable heart attack...you can feel the pain rising but you will (willingly?) go through it just to see how it actualy ends...
all in all I am not dissing the book or writer completely but hey what with all worthy minds ’’highly recommending’’ this book someone had to take a kamikaze dive and bring things to a less surreal level...