A powerful, reflective journey full of life lessons and meditative truths. Yet all in simple parable form.
Summary:
A young shepherd in Andalusia has a recurring dream that he will find treasure at the base of the pyramids. Not long after, he meets a mysterious king who encourages him to follow this Personal Legend and achieve his dreams. The shepherd sets off on his adventure, that will take many twists, and while it may look at times like he has been sidetracked, all of the steps are leading him to one major realization.
Verdict: 9.5/10
That was quite the journey, and so much deeper than I had expected. Yet the tale was deep in a simplistic way, similar to Winnie the Pooh, The Little Prince, or The Boy, The Horse, The Fox and The Mole yet with a slightly older audience intended. While I think anyone would gain life lessons from this book (it's chock full of too many to count), the deepest meaning are probably to those deciding what to do with their futures, such as high school, college or young adult.
The writing was gorgeous! The whole novel was overflowing with mantras and powerful themes. So many quotable lines! It seemed like every other page had an inspirational line you may see on a poster.
And the prologue was equally beautiful. The author outlined how the book hadn't sold at all, and it wasn't until Coehlo took it too a different publisher years later that it finally became a hit. Like his main character, it took perseverance and belief that everything would turn out right for the book to become a best seller. Just a further demonstration of the truth within this fiction.
For being a relatively brief read, there was a lot jam-packed into the pages. The Biblical references and historical allusions were clever and added even more to the story. And I would have to study this book five times to see all the themes. I mean just to name a few, there were lessons on:
dreams and goals
gaining positive perspective
kindness surpassing language barriers
fear
learning
patience
living in the present
love (although the love discussion was a bit over my head)
spirituality
and so much more
These were all powerful themes, but after a while, my head started to hurt. I didn't really understand one of the climatic points of the shepherd turning himself into the wind. There's just so many hard-hitting concepts to delve into and reflect on. But that also makes it great as there is always more to learn within Coehlo's writing. I was left in awe of this classic and have a desire to re-read it... maybe not immediately or every year (as that might be too mentally exhausting) but maybe every three years.
If you're in the right mentality for a contemplative journey, this is a fantastic book. I'll end with two of my favorite quotes from this first time through.
"We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand." - Paul Coehlo, pg. 79
“No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it." - Paul Coehlo, pg 163
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