Eleven minutes is about something that the grown-ups have their unconscious, sub-conscious and conscious minds riveted to almost all the time (research proves that!) and the not-so-grown-ups are hell-bound curious about. The word has broken all the records – be it as the most searched string on the internet space, the most sought after topic in literature or the single factor that could put the BO on fire when it comes to movies and entertainment. You guessed it right, the word is SEX. Yet, despite of it being always on our mind, how much do we really know about it - Is there anything more to it than mere momentary physical pleasure (biology)? How much of it is psychological and spiritual? Can the words ‘making-love’ and ‘sex’ be used interchangeably? And above all, what is the permissible height of sacrifices (if there’s any) one should make to realize ones ambitions? These are some of the questions dealt with in the book.

Let me shed some light on why I chose to read it especially when I am not at all a Paulo Coelho fan and infact promised myself never to read him after I somehow completed his ‘Veronika decides to die’. I find his books to be laden with absolute spiritual hotchpotch (yes that’s the word). His books are meant for the classes I assume and somehow when it comes to his books my concentration span shrinks to mere 10-11 pages per sitting. However, what attracted me to this one were its summary and the word ‘prostitute’ in it. It is forbidden and appeals instantly. A few other words from the summary – “In Geneva, Maria drifts further and further away from love as she develops a fascination with sex” came as a shock since from the very beginning you are conditioned to perceive women as emotional and men as materialist beings and here was a WOMEN who had sex many places above love in her list of desires. That was it, the curiosity to know more about Maria’s unusual indulgence took over my fear for Coelho’s spiritual bouncers and I grabbed a copy. It’s nasty of me, but tell me, which 23 year old mortal would not be interested in the story of a prostitute set out on the path of self discovery.

Coming to the book again, it forced me to reconcile with Coelho and his writings. The book is one of its kinds when it comes to gracefully handling something as explicit and direct as sex, so much so that you are not even allowed to indulge in pathos for a prostitute though that’s mostly the case. The story is about a small town girl, Maria and her adventures with life starting from the time she enters adolescence till she turns into a fully matured 24 year old, ripe with the knowledge of what she actually is and what her true aspirations are. Like any young girl, Maria is a dreamer, who dreams of all good things in life, a home, a caring husband, loving children, social status, etc. However, all her dreams are centered towards OTHERS and not her self and this factor always proved to be a weak link in her achieving happiness – she was dependent on something, somebody other than herself to be happy. Though with time she realizes that selfless love is hard to find, but nevertheless continues dreaming subtly of her definition of good life.

As an extension of this desire, she manages to come out of her small village and enter the big-bad world, the world she used to see only in dreams and indulges herself into the adventures, opportunities and difficulties that come with it. In the quest to live life on her own terms she is ready to do absolutely anything her heart approves of and since she did not find anything wrong in selling her body as a commodity, she boldly accepts the job of a prostitute. This is the point in the book where instead of feeling anger for her stubbornness, you feel inspired. It becomes apparent that Maria is different; she is not like any other ordinary girl who dreams and keeps on doing that only to find them ebbed by the daily tides of mediocre life, who does not have the strength to change the obvious, whose dreams always remain dreams – the only female character I have come across with so much of daring, confidence and determination to fulfill her desires at any cost. From this point onwards, Maria seems invulnerable.

Despite sex being her profession and perhaps because of it, Maria has never been through an orgasm with a man. In the midst of her plans to gather enough money and flee away to her village to resume her ordinary life (this time with the satisfaction of having experienced the charms of city life), she had a chance meeting with a rich, famous and affable man who is a painter by profession. His name is Ralf Hart and he was just as dissatisfied with life as is Maria, however his reason was abundance. This man had the sincerity that Maria found interesting and they began to meet frequently. Their discussions form an integral part of what author wanted to convey about love and sex. The story moves forward with Maria experiencing loveless sex with one of her clients on one side and sexless love with Hart on the other. This comparison of her experiences in the backdrop uncovers some interesting facets of two drastically different ideas of love - masochism on one hand and a romantically inclined passionate selfless love on the other.

Let me come to the shortcomings of the book now. As is mostly the case with Coelho, the story comes in flicks and the in-between stuff becomes terribly boring sometimes. The book is actually made up of three kinds of stuff – 1) Stuff that only Coelho understands 2) Stuff that you tweak a bit according to your own rules to feel that you have understood (actually, you have not and you are fooling yourself) 3) Stuff that’s interesting and understandable. So if you are patient enough to keep yourself hooked to the intermittent doses of interesting ideas then you can go for it. Moreover, you will also need to tear you way through some of the grey areas in the book – the metaphysical and overtly spiritual stuff. However, I would still recommend the book because it’s short (only 275 pages) and presents the topics that are mostly taken for granted in a different light.

That’s all for now. Do watch out for my next review – Its going to be on ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khalid Hosseini.

Plot Revealed In The Review:	Somewhat revealed
Purchase Price (INR):	300
Purchased From:	Book Store