THE ZAHIR

Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho's novel The Zahir is about a renowned author who writes about spirituality and once went on a pilgrimage along the road to Santiago. On a return visit, he is suddenly abandoned by his wife, who leaves no trace of herself behind. As the story unfolds the author becomes obsessed with understanding the reason for her desertion. Was she kidnapped, blackmailed, or simply bored with their marriage? His search for her - and for the truth of his own life - takes him from South America to Spain, France, Croatia and, eventually, the bleakly beautiful landscape of Central Asia. More than that, it leads him into a new understanding of the nature of love, the power of destiny and what it really means to follow your heart.

Really the novel is a average one (of course if u have a lot of free time then try reading it) if you like novels with a philosophical touch. The novel, though seems to be boring in its later part, is a novel which forces the reader to think about love, freedom, dreams, independence and our way of living life.

Just look to an excerpt from this book………

A woman is concerned that her lover is going back to his wife. He explains: 'Marie, let's suppose that two firemen go into a forest to put out a small fire. Afterwards, when they emerge and go over to a stream, the face of one is all smeared with black, while the other man's face is completely clean. My question is this: Which of the two will wash his face?'

'That's a silly question. The one with the dirty face of course.'

'No. The one with the dirty face will look at the other man and assume that he looks like him. And, vice versa, the man with the clean face will see his colleague's grime and say to himself: I must be dirty, too. I'd better have a wash.'

'What are you trying to say?' 'I'm saying that, during the time I spent in hospital, I came to realise that I was always looking for myself in the women I loved. I looked at their lovely, clean faces and saw myself reflected in them. They, on the other hand, looked at me and saw the dirt on my face and, however intelligent or self-confident they were, they ended up seeing themselves reflected in me and thinking that they were worse than they were. Please, don't let that happen to you.'

But as novel progresses, it really becomes confusing what author wants to conveys to its reader. Many things written in the novel are practically impossible in real life. Like “forgot your history/past life”. Does it seem so easy to forget everything? We know our every deed in present and future depends on our past. We make our views beliefs on what has happened with us in past. I agree that that we should not allow past interfering with our present but forgetting past is not the correct way. I think past experiences are like lessons which help us in direct or indirect way to take decisions in present. The past experiences are like our own treasure. Use your treasure properly to go forward in your life.

Like this many ideas of this novel seems impractical to be followed in real life. The ideas are so abstract that the while reading I was forced to think whether this ideas are really worth and have some place in my world. From the my view point, this novel seems to be like a bundle of abstract ideas.

This was my views….do read this novel and let me know your comments