By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho

Note: This is another novel about spiritual awakening from Paulo Coelho.

As what I’ve mentioned earlier, I bought all published book (at that particular time) from one author and Paulo is one of them. So please bear with me while I try to dissect the intricacies linked to these spiritually filled books.

Supposedly, these kinds of books shouldn’t be read based on the face value. It is supposed to be “understood/misunderstood” and “grilled” until you get the BING moment.

As for me, I don’t dwell too much on such things because it is tiring to analyse (or over-analyse) on certain books to get the isi-isi tersirat.

This book entitled “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho” (a mouthful mind you, it’s like reading the title with your mouth full of meatballs :-P), is one such novel.

In essence, it is about a scholar named Pilar who’s frustrated by the endless cycles of her life.

This scholar who hasn’t even stepped outside the big bad world to earn money is complaining about endless cycles of her life! BAH!

Before I jump straight to conclusion and analyse in my own perverted way, I shall hold my horses and continue to review this book with an open mind.

PATIENCE, PATIENCE!

Anyway, going back to the story; this Pilar girl got bored with her university life and wanted to seek some greater meaning to her existence within those supposedly endless cycles.

She got her break when all the sudden, her former crush who’s now a handsome and well respected spiritual leader cum miracle worker contacted her.

She saw the chance for her to break free from the cycles and decided to follow him thru his journey via sacred sites in the French Pyrenees.

However, the catch of this journey is that the guy will finally have to choose between her (as lover) and answering his spiritual calling.

This means that the tension of their love, her longings towards him and the feeling of loving but not being loved is constantly played between these two love-birds.

It is with these difficult conditions that the BING moment of the novel came as we discover the divinity and the power of love under such strained condition.

The novel does not have a happy ending because they parted with the guy answering his spiritual calling and Pilar ended up checking into a convent.

I guess this novel’s title depicts Pilar’s sorrow when she is confronted with an unfulfilled love.

So what do I think about this book?

Truth to be told, I don’t remember much about this book or any other books from Paulo.
I had to speed read most of his books before I can pen any review; which is why I don’t dwell too much on one book trying to seek out the hidden meaning and getting headache in the process.
I still need to work to earn bucks for a living u know :-P

On the hindsight, the prospect of experiencing unfulfilled love can be a painful affair and bravo to Paulo on his ability to capture its essence in written words.
And to re-read such novel again after such a long time enables me to fully understand the hidden meaning in its simple but beautiful storyline.


Personal rating: 8 out of 10

Cons:
1) No character development. As with other books from Paulo

Pros:
1) Refer to the comments above :-)