I am an admirer of the writings of Paulo Coelho
for the last several years. I also owe him for the huge traffic (about 16000
page views in three days) for my review of Aleph in my blog, mainly because
Paulo Coelho talked about that in his website.
Let me repeat what I wrote earlier while
reviewing the book ‘Manuscript found in Accra’ by Paulo Coelho here: Alchemist had touched my heart. Aleph had refined my soul. Veronica
decides to die gave me so much pain. The Zahir triggered in me more questions about the worthiness of relationships
than answers that can console. Eleven
minutes taught me about the love beyond lust. The winner stands alone tried to dissect my personality and left me in loneliness.
I had the same excitement when I picked up
Coelho’s latest book ‘Adultery’ from a book stall which forced to sell it at
25% discount because the illegal replicas were available in the street for
one-fourth of the price of the original.
I finished the book within a day making full
use of a long intercity travel. As the return flight touched the ground around
midnight with an unusually strong jerk, I was on the last page. I too felt a strong jolt within. Where did
Coelho ultimately take the reader?
Novels are written artifacts for the
consumption of readers. People read them mainly for entertainment, information,
relaxation, and inspiration. Coelho’s
books gave these in plenty though the last one viz. inspirational content was the
predominant reason for the popularity of his books. So naturally, readers who
are driven by the stereotypical expectations would look for the same element in
every work of Coelho. However, ‘Adultery’ was different. But that is not the
reason for my worry.
Let me share the theme in the book very briefly
without giving any vital clue about how the story ended.
Linda, who is in her thirties, is a journalist
with a leading newspaper in Switzerland. She is married to a ‘rich, charming
and intelligent’ man. According to her, she always wore the best clothes that
money could buy thanks to her ‘husband’s limitless generosity’. She had two
lovely children. Yet she felt depressed often. She was in search of something
that could lift her out of the routine life. She perceived new hope after the
unexpected encounter with a childhood friend who became an important
politician. Later one could see the lady with frequent mental aberrations
reflected both in thoughts and action and an uncontrollable drive characterized
by lust, jealousy, revenge and frustration. Like the ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, she found herself to be on the one hand honest, kind, caring and
professional and on the other hand impatient, irritated, and jealous. And,
quite surprisingly she has a husband who said, ‘I love you. I would endure
anything, absolutely anything, to always have you by my side’.
Certainly, some of the Coelho fans would find
the book slightly distasteful. But, moral character of a work cannot influence
an assessment of the story. Certainly, it is not mandatory for any author to
give a message in his work, though it could emerge as he unravels a story.
Readers could possibly draw insights on the human experiences and form his own
conclusions if he considers reading a book of fiction inspirational, educative
or therapeutic. In short, It is for the readers to search for ‘moral of the
story’ if they want.
However, it is true that many writers and
critics of literature had a different view. The debate on the relation between
literature and morality existed for centuries. Plato acknowledged that ‘a
fictional text can be a receptacle of morally instructive significance’. Plato
argued that if the art (we may add literature also here) does not teach
morality and ethics, it would be damaging to his ‘Republic’. Aristotle believed
that plot, character, thought, diction etc. influence the audience’s (let us
add readers’) catharsis (pity, fear and/or satisfaction with the work). We know
this for sure when we read authors like Dostoevsky and Shakespeare.
In his book ‘The Great Tradition’ (1948) F R Leavis argued that there can’t be great
art (and literature) without serious moral purpose. While he rejected ‘Madam
Bovary’ (1856) by Gustave Flaubert for its lack of ‘moral seriousness’, he
found the works of George Eliot in line with his thought. Famous British
theatre critic Eric Bentley had said, ‘Literature deals with morality but does
not necessarily, does not qua literature, help you to be more moral, either by
precept or by example’.
My view is that the terms ‘moral’ and ‘morality’
are very relative and one cannot possibly have a universal, spatiotemporal interpretation.
What is considered moral for one could be absolutely immoral for another. But
every piece of work, whether it is a best seller or a non-moving stock or one
that contains material which is blasphemous, obscene, libelous, or false, there
would be a definite cognitive and affective impact on the reader. Therefore, to
me, Coelho’s ‘Adultery’ is consequential to that extent for substantial number
of readers.
When I read ‘Adultery’, I got reminded of the
story and its depiction in the book ‘Madam Bovary’ (1856) by
Gustave Flaubert, which I mentioned above as a work scrutinized by F R
Leavis when he analyzed the relation between morality and literature. Emma (Madam Bovary), in order to escape the dullness
and emptiness of “provincial life” goes to experiment her romantic fantasies
with other men. The thrills of cheating followed by anxieties and tensions did
not stop her from pursuing the pleasures further. We see Linda in Paulo
Coelho’s book not much different.
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The language is beautiful as in most books by
Coelho. The ‘moral’ policeman within me wished that the book had an ‘A’ rating
on its cover to restrict it to children below a certain age group. Of course, I
am not speaking from a monastery which is cut off from the open-access world. But
many adults who prescribe Coelho’s books as compulsory reading for young
students would not prefer to see them read Coelho’s narrations of fantasies and
private acts of two consenting adults in this book. (Like movies, why not have
an adult rating for books too?). Anyway, this is a trivial issue.
The main character seems to be mentally ill.
The readers would draw a conclusion that the author attempts to project her as
one who represents multitude of such women in the modern society. The author
has shown that restlessness, lack of contentment and boredom, if not properly
tackled and understood, could lead to unintended actions and abnormal mental
status. The author creates confusion among readers whether Linda is after love
or lust. One would doubt whether the author started the writing with one
projection of the main character and later thought it can have a different projection
and a climax (was there any climax?). Dissatisfied with the last page, I flipped
again to look for some post script or epilogue! There was none.
I am sure the author himself would wish to tell
the readers that the theme is not adultery. But why then he chose that as a
title? Perhaps, the author or the publisher had a different idea when they
selected the title without considering the fact that millions of copies of
Paulo Coelho’s book can be sold even without a title.
Unlike the previous books of Coelho, I found
something seriously wrong with the flow. For me it was felt as if the author has sandwiched
a few extra pieces here and there after he finished stitching the cloth. One
example is the section that dealt with the explanation for love in the letterof St Paul to the Corinthians. A clear ‘balancing’ attempt!
Sorry for being an uncharitable reviewer of Paulo
Coelho this time. The exercise was indeed painful for me too! Though the book cannot
be one of the bests by Paulo Coelho, it is definitely deserve a top position
among the best seller fictions in the market now.
Views are personal ©
Sibichen K Mathew
Those who want to read my review of ‘Aleph’ by
Paulo Coelho click below:
Read my other book reviews below:
