Books : The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession

Rating: - Enjoyable
Anyone familiar with Paulo Coelho's work will enjoy this book.

While it does deal with 'the ego', I found it not as dark and introspective as other works.

I'm buying copies for presents for this year, it's accessible to most people.

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Rating: - A Novel of Egotism
This is not the best I have read from Paulo Coelho, but as always I know I'm going to remember some of the profound messages it portrays. I'm still thinking about `Eleven Minutes' some two years on, and `The Alchemist' was apparently life-changing for many of the 27 million who have read it (so far). Of course the writer has his critics but I wonder if some of those are on his wavelength, or even have the capacity or desire to be. In The Zahir, a man with no name wonders why his wife of ten years has left him, and as is the case with most of Coelho's novels, a pilgrimage begins which leads the central character to question his or her purpose in life and the things that truly matter. In this novel the unnamed man is a very successful writer, which I personally found uncomfortable because I was constantly wondering if this tale was partly or even wholly autobiographical; Coelho acknowledges that at least one of the characters is based on a person with the same name and nationality, and the book itself is dedicated to the author's wife Christina - could she be, in fact, the Zahir who becomes something of an obsession in the unnamed writer's life? Personally I found this lingering doubt to be a distraction, particularly because the writer speaks somewhat arrogantly if not egotistically about his career and achievements, and I would hope that this differs from Coelho in real life.

Despite the theme of love and its eternal energy that we are indirectly urged to embrace, the central unnamed character gives the impression of a man with somewhat shallow feelings; he has been married three times or more and even in his latest marriage he concedes to occasional acts of infidelity which in my view serve to undermine his credibility as a man worthy of the woman he is married to. He finds new `love' not long after his wife's unexplained disappearance and continues to flirt, or invite sexual encounters, so I for one felt unattached to his emotional dilemma.

In spite of that, there was plenty to make me think about some of those intellectual, philosophical and spiritual issues that seem to occur in most of Coelho's work. Some of his observations border on the cynical, for example his compartmentalisations of relationships in high society or simply between a husband and a wife, the observations made have a touch of condescension about them yet maybe they are more accurate than some of us would like to think. Central to this line of thinking is that age-old question : `What is love?' and to an extent the author tries to offer his ideas of what love is and more often his opinions of the hypocrisies and denials many of us live within during our married lives. As in Eleven Minutes he dehumanises love (or at least our popular conception of it) and presents us with a picture of the love that we can find at the end of a spiritual tunnel, a painful one that we seem to have to traverse in order to find it. It's a difficult subject to approach and is bound to attract criticism but the open-minded reader will find it interesting and perhaps worth pursuing. I don't think I read anything categorically new in The Zahir but it was elegantly written and is a worthwhile read for anyone looking not so much for the meaning of life, but the purpose of it, and the things that really matter.

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Rating: - An inspired piece of work, as is to be expected by Paulo
I had to look again at the cover of the book I'd finished, just to double check it was The Zahir, as most of the existing reviews here are in my opinion harsh. Okay, so it's not his best work and isn't as 'easy' to read as The Alchemist or Eleven Minutes, but nonetheless it's a powerful, inspirational and beautiful book. Some people may disagree with his concept of love in the story (personally I agree with him), but it's still a beautiful journey he embarks on and the personal strength and understanding the character gains throughout the story are to me the most important parts of the book. If you enjoy Mr Coelho's work, you will enjoy The Zahir....simple as that.

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Rating: - This was torture
Hi All

I am currently reading this book and am stuggling to read it, in fact I feel like I am torturing myself by trying to get to the end. I keep thinking it will get better and something interesting or exciting will happen. "A Novel of Obsession" - Obession is compulsive or irrational preoccupation, but the book did not come across like that to me it was someone plodding along and moaning. After reading the reviews here, I am not going to torture myself any more and will not continue reading the book. I am extremely disappointed in it, this is the second book I have read by Paulo Coelho. The other book I read the Alchemist was absolutely fab.

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Rating: - It actually made me angry...
I have really liked Coelho's book but this was a real let-down. The incessant spirituality, the pretentious idea of 'love' and energy began to infuriate me. It's a real shame because the first few chapters of the book I felt a real empathy with the character and was gripped by it but then I became less absorbed and more annoyed and frustrated by the ideas of how we understand love.

For me, it felt like the definition of love given within this book was exclusive, limited and elitist. To only be able to understand love by meeting a set of criteria and another person's ideals infuriates me and the latter tone of the book I found pretentious and actually felt more and more alienated from what he was trying to achieve. Added to this unlikeable and weak characters - it did nothing for me.

This could have been much, much more...