I have always been a fan of philosophical fictions and it is obvious that anyone who has such a taste is a fan of Paulo Coelho’s works. I have read only two books of his “The Alchemist” and “Eleven Minutes” and I should say both of them were excellent experiences. With high expectations with these stories in my mind, I laid my hands on this book called “The Zahir” which is the recent release of Paulo Coelho.
Plot in Brief
It is all about a writer whose wife left him one day without giving any valid reason? He is so confused and his life gets completely filled with love for his wife in her absence and he goes in search for her thereby meeting a epileptic young man called “Mikhail”, the man with whom he suspects that his wife could be with. Also he falls in love with one more woman called Marie while in search of his wife (ex-wife).And finally it is all about how he gets out of this “Zahir”. Zahir means in Arabic, visible, present, and incapable of going unnoticed. It is the state of holiness or madness for those who got this Zahir around them.
Disappointing
My verdict in one word on this novel is “Disappointing”. Has the master narrator lost touch? I do understand there is nothing much new to say in philosophical books but the way Paulo imbibes the philosophy with a realistic narration was always a treat to read through which is terribly missing in this novel. The philosophies don’t gel well with the story and it is more of a lecture or a sprinkled short stories rather than a gripping novel. Also all that he intended to say in this novel have been said in much better way in his other previous novels and hence it is boring to read all those stuffs again. But still I admire how he comes with details about a man’s psyche in any situation, he just get into the soul of the character he creates and explains it in simple words like he did in “Eleven minutes”. Though it is full of preachy stuffs you get small twist here and there that keeps you engaged and at least at a later point you will be interested to know what happened and will resume reading the book from where you stopped last.
AgaAgaAgaAgain…
The biggest flaw of the book is that it has no gripping story; with just four characters, a story is artificially built to hold all his sub plots and his long philosophical lectures together. He goes overboard at times and repeats the same thing again and again which irritates after a point like he thinking again and again “why his wife left him without giving any reason?” Though this kind of thought is bound to happen for anyone in that situation, the thought is used for some distraction from main story to preach some philosophy, either he goes to past and think about some conversation they both had about love or gives some new story about a boy who returns buying two apple instead of five etc., The narration takes too many branches and lacks coherence. We don’t actually sympathize with the longing of the unidentified male who is in search of his “Zahir” (wife). That makes the book dull further. Yet I continued reading it till the end to expect something different, interesting, gripping and intriguing at least at the end but that doesn’t happen until the end. The ending is plain. The Mikhail character and his epileptic fits and his long flash back are deliberately added to distract the story even more. Towards the end, Mikhail and his group doing mad things in the name of freeing oneself and spreading love all around the world sounds crazy and funny.
Unconvincing
The main philosophy about freeing oneself and allowing love to flow in and out through the body by separating from those who you love the most is not convincingly told. The way he comes out of “Zahir” is also not clearly explained. May be I may not have read between the lines or I may not have enough insight and knowledge to understand the philosophy that the author has intended to say but it is the same me who understand every single concept of love and life that he told in “Alchemist” and “Eleven minutes”. Definitely that clarity of thought and the simplicity in the narration are missing in this novel.
Come back “Alchemist”
The author himself says that he himself doesn’t understand most of the book that he had written and is a reader of his own books and understands things at a later point and so are the readers. But this time, he may have understood what he said but the readers may not. This should be the most boring book that he would have ever written. If you are in a mood to read philosophies go back to “Alchemist” or “Eleven Minutes” or “Veronica Decides to Die”.