I am not a reader of fiction books, mostly because I devoured them as a teenager and young adult. My taste was spreading from the classics - like Montesquieu, Gustave Flaubert, Emile, Zola, Marcel Proust, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Descartes and ending with the titans of the 20th century - James Joyce, Aldous Huxley, Ernest Hemingway, Sam Below, Thomas Mann,Sam Becket, John Galsworthy, Max Frisch, John Fowles. It is hard to recognize that I enjoyed those authors, but in my youth, Internet was not present and killing time had not many avenues among us - sports, reading, scarce parties.
I read some of the South-Americans authors - Garcia Marques, Jose Saramago, Mario Vargas Llosa - and enjoyed it as the writer's imagination and the reality of those countries had something in common with the reality of my country and Romanian authors being forced to write in parables and still lived under a heavy hand of the dictatorial/communist regime.
I did not read Paulo Coelho, until recently. Several friends were enthused about his style and the subjects touched by his books. I am not a fan anymore of fiction, the non-fiction and the authors being anchored in the current reality is enough for me, or authors treating history as their playground.
I started reading Coelho with "The sorcerer of Portobello" which happens to have a few links with Romania and even with some of my preferred Romanian authors - Mircea Eliade. It is an interesting reading with a theme combating the old religion with the renewed paganism. The Mother God as opposed to the institutionalized religion is an interesting juxtaposition for the proponents of mind relaxation and Darwinism(the fittest/flexible survives) which totally cracked the foundation of the Christianity.
I don't want to comment on the evolution of the main character, Sienna or Xena, but on her openness to becoming a witch. Is the initiation process, going through many steps, looking for many teachers and undergoing many transformations which make it much more human than the church stories about saints and Christ.
Also, there is the theme of creating proselytes, the same as in the Christ's evolution, but by co-opting and showing the way for them, in a spiritual way. Also, there is the knowledge that they might be better people out there (than yourself) to spread the word and create an undercurrent (which is not happening in Christianity).
The end of the novel is also hopeful and without the sacrifice which is such a tormented subject for the catholic church. People are touched by the presence of Sienna, but not in a scarring way, but in a human and contemplative look at the life. Love is not a duality (man/woman) but has the inclusivity of many members of the society.
It is an interesting book, and the confrontation between catholic church and paganism (church) is purely symbolic from a social perspective but also indicative at the reduced role of the church in people's life.
Another book I liked, from Paulo Coelho was "11 minutes", that in other post.
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