Down with the Alchemist

I don´t like Paolo Coehlo´s writing. There I said it. I know there are millions of people out there that completely adore him and think he´s the greatest writer ever, but I am not one of them. I can´t even count how many people have recommended me his book the Alchemist. And being one that enjoys reading I gave it a passing try. I hated it, thought it was the worst book I have ever read. I have given him another chance, and I´m glad I have, but I still am not a fan. But what this second book has done is given me insight into why I don´t like Paolo Coehlo´s writing.

I have nothing against the man, in fact I think I would probably enjoy his company. He seems to enjoy what he does (intuited from his books) and I like the message that he seems writes about. I like the idea that we, as people, should seek to find out what we want in life. We should be true to ourselves and not think of ourselves as machines meant to go in straight lines. All of that I´m cool with. I just think his writing (from the two books, and I´m mainly emphasizing The Alchemist) not that good.

What makes his writing boring/tedious/trite to me is that it doesn´t seem like he´s trying to write a story by which everyone can interpret and learn from in their own way. It´s more like he´s trying to create these templates for people to learn the exact same thing. I just think it´s funny because it´s juxtaposed on living an individual, passionate life. For me this makes the story turn hollow and mass produced, and even though I recognize his easily accessible messages it loses its meaning by that mass produced feeling.

I think the first priority in a fiction novel should be the story. This allows the message/s to lie naturally within the frame of that story, in the crevices. A good example of this, albeit a film, are the star wars films, where they are telling a captivating story with the Force as the back bone. It sits better in the film, even though it´s just as obvious, because the Author/Director has focused on creating a captivating story, unlike the Alchemist where there seems to be an overuse of vague semi-profound words but there isn´t much within the story. I realize to some extent that this minimalism of story telling is one of the things he is famous for, but I think it was overdone.

I think he has tried to emulate Jorge Luis Borges, but hasn´t quite pulled it off.