Book Review Series- Episode III : The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Third in the series is an internationally best-selling book- The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. 

It will not be an exaggeration to call The Alchemist as the bible of all fictional books. You will see this piece on every other book shelf, certainly every library and anybody who reads fiction, has read this book or plans on to read it. Just like many others, I had this book in my reading list for quite long. However, my reviews might not resonate with the multiple others who categorize 'The Alchemist' as their all-time favourite. 

The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo

Genre

Fiction

Language

This is definitely one of the easiest to read books that I have come across. It has been written in a simple yet effective manner, thus maintaining the interest of the reader over the course of the story. The Alchemist is not one of those long texts as it wraps up in a humble 161 pages. One can read it a single sitting with ease. Paulo Coehlo is known to communicate extra-ordinary events in simple words and he did exactly that with this book as well.  

Format

Given the length of the book, The Alchemist lies somewhere between a short story and a novel. Although multiple facets and aspects of the protagonist's story is shared with the readers, the format has been kept succinct. You will find clear endings to each and every important phase in the story but the story is not clearly divided into chapters as such. A lot of readers use chapters as a cursory guide to their daily reading, although you will not feel the need for that here because it is not a very long story to follow along in the first place.

The Idea

There are several wonderful ideas that Coehlo has tried to explore in this piece. They range from hard work, determination to destiny, however, given that a lot of depth has not been added to these aspects individually, the crux of the story seems to revolve around a single idea of destiny intertwined with desire. The basic subject that the universe conspires to bring to you what you truly desire lies in the core of the story. 

Notwithstanding the beauty of this idea, it has been repeated so many times in several books and movies that it seems banal now. Personally, I liked the book but it is certainly not the best that I have read. It might be a risk to contradict the popular opinion here but I would recommend this book as a one-time read if you have a spare couple of hours. If you haven't read it yet, you aren't really missing out on anything spectacular.