Alchemy: not the way we perceive it. Review on The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

Is it about alchemy or a dark art practiced in the medieval era or does it deals with the life of an (so called) alchemist? The name definitely suggests so, doesn’t it? But this is a story of a person who risks his everything to follow a dream. And it has been so wonderfully told that it does not seem to be a burden at all. Yeah it does urges one to follow his/her dream, even at the risk of every thing that you possess.

What makes you like this book? Maybe this book gives you philosophy the form of a story or maybe it has a happy ending, or was it because it gives us a sense that each and everyone of us has a destiny. Truly speaking it was the story, which bewitched me. A short and sweet story of a shepherd, who has a dream and a destiny, the destiny to be an alchemist. And alchemy is not about converting mercury or iron to gold.

I can’t deal with the story because I don’t think I have the capacity to do it. It’s so beautifully written that it forces to think about our destiny and what we are heading. Are we brave enough like the shepherd or would we end up as one of the millions.

The story seems to tell us that life always gives us an option. We always end up choosing up the easiest and the safest option. Do we take life too seriously? I remember reading somewhere “life without purpose is like a boat without destination”. I think it is worse than that. It does not reach anywhere. So maybe the story is about being truthful to one-self.

So what does that translate into? Leaving everything for the sake of an obscure dream like in the book? I think we are unhappy in the position we are in (though we may be well off), it is always better to risk all for your dream. But if you are satisfied, (as the book says, ‘oneness with the nature’), don’t even think of doing it.

To me what the book says is not that you can be happy by wealth, I feel the book says that true happiness lies in finding love and feeling of attaining your destiny. I would like to recommend this book, for the single purpose of going through a lovely story, fantastically told.