I was not being held captive by this book.. i can say. But I still managed to complete it in half a dozen sitings. I liked it. Narration is kinda filmy and dramatic but I could correlate to the base message/s that are given, hence I would rate it as a good book.
Alchemist is basically a dude who can talk to things in the world such as wind, sun
etc. Now, I don't quite get how being an alchemist is the heart of the book so as to
be the title but being an alchemist is heart of the story that author has narrated.
He does some fundoo, out-of-the-world thing in the climax that saves his life.
Summary of the story:
There is this shepherd boy who lives in Spain and gets a dream of treasure that is hidden near pyramids. He, apparently can see 'omens' i.e. God's messages for you to direct you, help you or whatever. He decides to follow the omens and to find the treasure. Then there is this old king who comes out of nowhere and enlightens him and gives him some magical stuff. He starts journey towards Egypt and stumbles upon many hurdles. Sometimes gets frustrated to reaching a point where he decides to return but somehow continues with the original plan (omens, friends etc). He also gets to meet a girl who he instantly falls for!! No wonder the feelings are mutual and the girl is generous enough to not only let but inspire him to continue his journey towards achieving his dream and tells she will wait.. like forever..
and be happy in doing that rather that keeping him chained.. total hindi movie stuff. Finally he gets the treasure and starts the journey back towards his soul mate!!
Good things about the book:
As I said, author has some gravity in the message that he wants to convey through this script. 'Every search starts with the beginner's luck and every search ends with the victors being severely tested'.. I like this sentence a lot. He says that whenever you start something, you will get some immediate success.. that's beginners luck. However, as you proceed, the difficulties will increase and you will be severely tested before tasting final success.
Also, he talks about 'progress' being the main thing in the world and all is one. He says, when an alchemist converts copper into gold, that's the progress for copper and that's what is important. People often mistake it and concentrate on the 'gold'. I myself had/have a similar opinion i.e. it doesn't matter how rich you are or how intelligent you are, the only thing that matters is the progress from the point you started till current instant. That's the source of human's joy. Hence
I found similarity in the views and I liked it.
I feel the 'omens' that are heavily referred in the book should be mapped to our 'intuition'. What author wants to say is you should listen to your intuition. I think this is a very good message. Especially when you are in a dilemma, always go with intuitions (off course if they are baseless then they will take you downwards only :-) ) but listening to your heart will have a high probability of taking you to a good final result.
