Paulo Coelho's 'The Valkyries' fell into my lap at the peak time of my admiration for its author. I think I rated it so highly was because I really loved the plot. Looking back at it now I believe that my lack of tolerance for Paulo's mystic ways would have most probably repulsed me, but at the time I was quite enthralled by it.

All I can say is that you will be in a confused state as to whether this is a novel or an autobiography, or a concocted cocktail of cockery. In hindsight, it would seem that Paulo really wants to be the most admired, most mystic and mysterious. It just comes out as weird.

I wish these stories or plots had come to other writers who would have done it more justice. But alas!

sorry Paulo Coelho :( aber du hast schon bessere Bücher geschrieben.

After getting introduced to Coelho via "The Alchemist", imagine my expectations when I stumbled upon this one.

I don't remember when I read it exactly, but I remember the weird ending that was supposedly true. True as in "happened to Coelho in real life". It might have happened, and I might have believed it, if only anything in the book made sense.

شيفتگي يعني همين:ساخت تصويري از كسي ، بدون آنكه آنكس بداند آن تصوير اصلا چيست
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گمان مي كنم خيلي بيشتر از اين حرفها باز هم شيفته بشوم. احساس گناه نمي كرد. شيفتگي چيز خوبي بود. سرگرم كننده بود، و به زندگي رنگ و بو مي داد.
اما با عشق فرق داشت. عشق به اندازه همه چيز مي ارزيد و با چيزي قابل معامله نبود.

I don’t know why I still try with Paulo Coelho books but I do. And this one similarly to the others just felt off putting to me. I did not like the characters and they felt like a bunch of differently annoying characters clashing with each other about who is more annoying/mysterious- while all of them are equally annoying and not mysterious at all. The only person I liked was Chris as she felt a little more aware of how annoying everyone was being but no matter how much I liked her still hated this book.

كالعاده باولو والارواح والتحدث مع الطبيعه وسحر كل شئ ... ياخذنا الكتاب فى رحله فى الصحراء.. حيث يؤمن البطل بوجود ملاكه الخاص الذى يحميه ويريد رؤيه هذا الملاك والتحدث معه ...

يقوم الرحله مع زوجته التى لا تؤمن بالسحر ولكنها تحب مشاركته فى ما يؤمن به .. تكون بجانبه طوال الرحله وتأبى فراقه .. تكلم ملاكها من قبله وتشعر بوجوده يحميها وتكتفى بهذا القدر ..

بمرور الوقت تتعلم بعض الاشياء وتساعد زوجها فى فهم بعض الاشياء الاخرى وتقبل طبيعه بعض الاشياء ..

يقابلن فتيات فالكيرى ويحدث صراع بين زوجته وتلك الفتاه فالهالاه ..صراع بدأ من اللحظه الاولى .. صراع الحب والشهوه .. كل منهما تتحدى الاخرى وكل منها انثى حقيقيه ..
وبرغم حده الصراع الا انه كان يحمل من الحكمه والاحترام ما يكفى لان تتقبل كل واحده الاخرى .. فى نهايه الرحله يحقق باولو ما يتمناه ...

اعشق هذا الكاتب واعشق رواياته الروحيه وخياله لعل هذه الروايه لم تكن بروعه الخيميائى او بريدا .. ولمن لكل روايه عبقها الخاص

Coelho’s hero here is his stand-in, a follower of magic and spirituality that seems quite overwhelming to the story, a big personality. This character’s wife is more of a normal person. The book is about how they both relate to the spiritual quest of the hero, with the wife dragged along and by the end appearing to learn more. This one just didn’t grab me. I found the story similar to other hero quest stories, but this seemed too familiar, reminding me of late night B movies about witches and demons and such. Not the best of Coelho’s stories.

Initially, I had found the book easily-put-downable. However, there were two things that kept me thumbing through the pages. Firstly, this verse:

And each man kills the thing he loves,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword.

My first impression to it was, "That's a total lie! It can't be true for everyone." But as I'd turned over the page, I found out that the master (J.) of the protagonist (Paulo) wanted this curse to be broken. And I, in turn, wanted to see how this would be done.

Secondly, it was the character Chris (the wife of Paulo)who kept me riveted to the book. Somehow, in some aspects, I could see a reflection of myself in Chris and so I wanted to know how does she overcome her flaws.

As in all his other books, Paulo invites the readers to love, be courageous, and dream!

A magical story about the angels in our life

I think I'm just not a fan of the two Paulo Coelho books I found.

Alas. I think I am lost. And in the ocean, so to speak.

"And each man kills the thing he loves,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword"

Sublime and influential!

Byłoby 5 gdyby Paulo miał odpowiedniejsze podejście do swojej żony.