Πρώτη επαφή με τον Coelho, όχι και η καλύτερη!
Ξεκινά ενδιαφέρον, κάπου χάνεται κάπου κουράζει με τόσες αναφορές στη θρησκεία..

Good read.

A very, intense, emotional read. A deviation from Cuelho's usual themes in his books.

There's a plot (two people who were a couple in their youth meet up and fall in love again), but the story doesn't actually have a lot to do with the plot. This is well-written but it's too written - there is too too much verbosity, too much meandering, too much philosophical meandering that really isn't as clever as it might look at first glance. My biggest irritation, however, is how damned preachy it is.

I have just experienced a wonderful and enlightening love story that has moved me deeply. Indeed, Paulo Coelho's "By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept" is a must read for people who have lost, found, or still seeking for love.

I have made some references to this novel in some of my past blogs. But now, I am writing more about it on my personal realizations after experiencing this enigmatic literary work.

I have jotted down some lines from the book that struck me the most, and taken note of my insights.

(1) But love is much like a dam:if you allow a tiny crack to form through which only a trickle of water can pass, that trickle will quickly bring down the whole stucture and soon no one will be able to control the force of the water.

Me: Falling in love is a beautiful experience. Deciding to fall in love is the hard part. But this analogy of love and a dam, explains it quite well. Once you start having the slightest thought that maybe love is possible or start seeing a person in a different light, all other feelings and ideas will start to rush in. Then you feel afraid of what you have just realized and try to thrust it away. No escape. Your heart and mind fight it out. Still, it doesn't matter which ends up victorious, because from then on, you will never see things the same way again.

(2) In real life, love has to be possible. Even if it is not returned right away, love can only survive when the hope exists that you will be able to win over the person you desire.

Me: Love is forbearing. But sometimes the heart is impatient. This statement is still unclear to me. Maybe because, I have often easily given up in this quest for "winning over the person I desire". I guess this statement is experiential, only then will there be full understanding of it.

(3) Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.

Me: How would we know if it is time to move on or that it is still worth another try? I have seen a lot with this dilemma, both from movies and through acquaintances. And indeed, seeing them in that state where they have no idea which way to take is truly heart breaking. I have been in both situations. I have waited. I have forgotten. But by some cosmic conspiracy, somehow I still find myself wondering, what if I took the other path? Forgetting is like a point of no return. If you choose to forget and leave, then you must stand by your decision, no matter how difficult it promises to be. Only by then will you be able to move on. In waiting, the clincher would be how long should you wait, and do you really have something to wait for. Either way, you will find yourself hurting at one point in time.

(4) What I remember is that love returned in the form of another man, new hopes and new dreams.

Me: The bible says that love is constant and that love is forever. Poets reiterate this in their masterpieces. Hopeless romantics sing about it. Then if this be the case, I have no reason to believe that love ever fails. It just transforms. This should be able to keep the flame of hope of finding the love of our lives burning through and through.

There you go. I am done with another book. A couple of weeks later, I would no longer fully remember what it was about or who the characters were. But somehow I would still recall the feelings I got as I was reading through it and my pot of insights has yet again been stirred and repleted.

P.S. The female character is Pilar. She was the one telling the story. But the male character remained nameless. Hmm... Or did I just forget his name already? ;)


(Wrote this review in 2004 right after reading the book. Review published on my (ex)blog @ http://theobnoxiouslevin.blog-city.com)

i so badly wanted to like this book, but i couldn't bring myself to do so. this book is deeply depressing on its view of love and entirely different from how i perceive love. to summarize this book, it is as if to say "falling in love" with many women the guy met is so easy. and to make love to whomever he met or "fell in love" with, in my world, i call that something that starts with F. nobody falls in love so often too many times. nobody does. if they do, it's just lust throbbing in their genitals. so they went traveling, Pilar and the man. they went to a church, prayed. And they made love at the hotel.. the very next day, he left her. Wow. and sorry, i couldn't see this book like how anyone else sees it. maybe, making love is so easy this days. maybe it is something so loose someone could do just to anyone... in the Bible, making love is supposed to be something beautiful created between a husband and a wife. and if you make love to anyone randomly, please don't call it making love. it's devaluing the meaning entirely. same as a prostitute can't make love to different men every night. forgive me, but to say spirituality and love in this book changes people's life, it didn't do to me because what i have experienced in life is more than what this book could hold.

A very amazing book I know I will keep coming back to read again and again.
Some quotes:
"All love stories are the same."
"Yes we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments - but all this is transitory; it leaves no permanent mark. One day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken."
"I could have. - What does this phrase mean? At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have happened but didn't. The magic moments go unrecognized, and then suddenly the hand of destiny changes everything."
"Son los locos que inventaron el amor. - The song was right: it must have been the lunatics who invented love."
"Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows."

"In fairy tales, the princesses kiss the frogs, and the frogs become princes. In real life, the princesses kiss princes, and the princes turn into frogs."

μιεχ.... :/

this book was a joke.

horrible, pretentious, verbose, and yet basically content-free language - which in itself might be seen as quite an achievement if you're trying to do really bad writing.

and the content....?! uummmmm, empty, trite banalities and cliches. - i really dont understand how anyone who has even spent a *minute* reflecting on any philosophical question would get any sort of insight out of such a book!

as i remember it, the outline of the plot even sounded pretty promising.... sth about a woman and a man reuniting and falling in love again, i mean, you could work with that, right? but since the entire plot was nothing but a stage for his, as i mentioned, really very insightless "insights"..... it was not much help, either. especially, when he started the crazy religious talk, that i seem to remember, some crazy "miracle" stuff..... yeah, that was when i seriously lost patience with that book.

i honestly have to say, in terms of style, language, *and* content, this was probably the worst book i have ever finished reading.

من با ترجمه بهناز سلطانیه خوندم.
به نظرم ارزش خوندن نداره.
یعنی آدم فقط گول نویسنده‌شو میخوره!!!
در کل من کتابهای با محتوی مذهبی رو دوست ندارم،
حالا هر دینی که می‌خواد باشه!
به نظرم خرافی میاد…
خوندن این کتاب رو حتی برای شروع کتاب‌خوانی هم پیشنهاد نمیکنم! :)))))))

ЗА БОГА, БРАТЯ, НЕ ЧЕТЕТЕ.

لم ترق لي هذه الرواية...صفحة تلو الاخرى حتى ايقنت بأن وقتي ضاع بلا فائدة ترجى
وقت المرء أثمن من أن يهدره فيما لا ينفع ولا متعة في هذه الرواية ولا شيء فيها مشوق.