The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho

In this novel entitled “The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho”; we’re posed with the evergreen question of whether human is born to inherently good or bad.

To further “cement” the implication of good versus evil, Paulo even picked the following quote from Bible as the opening act.


And a certain ruler asked him, saying, "Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
And Jesus said unto him, "Why callest thou me good? None is good, save one, that is God.”


Luke 18:18-19


Come to think of it, even Santa decided to join in the fray by asking if we’ve been naughty or nice every single year :-P

But then, it’s not Santa we’re talking about here because Santa doesn’t write a book and Paulo does. So here’s the book review.

In this story, Paulo wrote a readable tale about human interaction and how human react to fear, greed and temptation. All of these happened in a really tiny village called Viscos. To cut the description short, it is a small, peaceful and quaint town (though dying a natural death) where everyone knows everyone.

However, this sense of peace is soon shattered by the arrival of a stranger; who have lost his whole family to an unfortunate kidnapping incident. He offered the knowledge of hidden bars of gold (11 bars of unknown purity and weight; but we assume it to be pure 999% and standard 1kg/bar :-P) to one lonely lady called Chantal Prym.

The stranger will divulge the hidden location on condition that the village people sacrifice one of their inhabitants. After some deep consideration, Ms Prym decided to break the news to the fellow villagers hoping that they will stick together and will not sacrifice anyone for the gold bars.

Her sense of assurance was shattered when the villagers decided to sacrifice one old lady called Berta for the gold. Ms Prym went all the way to dissuade the villagers from committing such sin and in the end, no one died and the twisted stranger realized that human have both good and evil in them, it’s ultimately a matter of choice.

I have to admit that Paulo should stick to stories like this (as well as “The Alchemist”) with “isi-isi tersirat” (hidden meanings) which shows us the dark and bright side of being a human. In my opinion, the lure of this novel is its subtle infusion of values which enable the readers to relate the “experiences” mentioned in the storyline better.


Personal rating: 7 out of 10

Cons:
1) Not much character development. Paulo doesn’t dwell much on this department. Instead, he targets on the message he intends to convey to his readers.

Pros:
1) Readable storyline albeit with a rather predictable ending.