\n Coelho’s placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.\n <\/p>\n
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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus<\/i> (1992\u2014not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it’s an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable\u2014in other words, a bag of wind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: “to realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation.” So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, “Listen to your heart” A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents’ worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver (“concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man”). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits\u2014a far cry from Saint- Exupery’s The Little Prince<\/i>: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Coelho’s placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Pub Date:<\/b> July 1, 1993<\/p>\n
ISBN:<\/b> 0-06-250217-4<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Page Count:<\/b> 192<\/p>\n
Publisher:<\/b> N\/A<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Review Posted Online:<\/b> May 19, 2010<\/p>\n
Kirkus Reviews Issue:<\/b> May 1, 1993<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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