Book Title: By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Author: Paulo Coelho
Year Published: 1994
Publishers: Editora Ltd (Brazil)
HarperCollinsPublishers (UK)
My Tidbits
Okay, so after finishing the biography of the author, I decided to read one of Paulo's masterpieces. And I just realized that the feeling of jumping straightaway to fiction after reading a non-fiction is totally different. When we read non-fiction, we churn the ideas and facts that are served to us, while trying to link the concept to our real life events. Fiction needs my imagination and at the same time, that ability to translate the hidden message behind the flowing beauty of words =) I admit that I need to concentrate more to read fiction (and constant reading time - blame my short span of attention :p), than when I read non-fiction. But of course, I love both! haha xD
This book tells the story of Pilar, a girl from a small town called Soria, and her meeting with a childhood friend and also an old flame of her life. Pilar hasn't only re-ignite the sparks, but also involved in a journey to re-discover her faith. After 11 years, Pilar is a university student and her unnamed leading man is now a charismatic spiritual teacher with a gift to cure illnesses. From attending a spiritual conference that he led, Pilar travels with him to meet people who introduce and talk about the feminine side of God to her. The story goes on how the feminine side of spirituality, often referred as Great Mother, actually presents in many religions and faiths and earn the highest respect from the devotees. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church recognizes Virgin Mary as an important figure, but has yet to fully accept her as the feminine face of God.
I'd say that 'By The River Piedra...' has an interesting mixture of love tales and longing for worldly desire and divine light. Pilar struggles to learn to listen to her heart and following her dream to live with the man, while fighting her doubts. Meanwhile, the spiritually-gifted gentleman finally chooses to let go of his gift and leads a normal life with Pilar. What I love is that it's not a 'grandeur' love story - the exquisitely simple and straightforward words chosen echo in my heart loudly. There are about two or three scenes in the book that actually moved me to tears, and those are short but sweet ones like saying "I Love You" :')
And I really love the part where the man gives a lecture in the conference on taking risk to fully use the gift or talent bestowed upon us, and that miracles do exist in our everyday life. What he says in the lecture sound true to me and I found myself paused for a while to let the words came to my mind and stayed around =)
This book offers me to view love from real-life perspectives: our fear to speak out loud our dreams; our struggle to believe in ourselves and see what's true of us; the willingness to go through ups and downs in life with our loved ones; and the power of true love.
Posts
