RT 2012 book 7: brida

When you find your path, you must not be afraid.

You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes.

Disappointment, defeat and despair are the tools God

uses to show us the way.

This may be the last time I am going to read a book by Paulo Coelho. I say "may be" because who knows, he might write a new novel that is to my liking. So far, I've read 6½ of his books: The Alchemist, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, Like the Flowing River, El Zahir, Eleven Minutes, Brida and the ½ is Veronika Decides to Die which I didn't finish.

The very first Paulo Coelho book I read was The Alchemist and while a lot of people gushed about it, I didn't like it. I was 15 years old at that time and I was spending the summer vacation in the province and that was before the heyday of cable TV and dibidis, so I brought a book with me to pass the time. I struggled reading it and thought it was boring but I saw through it because I learned to be matiyaga with books cos sometimes may redeeming factor in the end (as with Ha Jin's The Waiting). I compare The Alchemist with a Tagalog saying, "sa hinahaba-haba ng prusisyon, sa simbahan din ang tuloy," and do you know the feeling that you're watching this movie then the bida wakes up at the end of the movie and realizes it was all a dream... you feel as if you've been duped, right? That was what I felt after finishing the novel. So here I am 15 years later with my fifth book and after finishing the novel, all I can say was, "Pangit."

Brida is this young woman who is curious about magic, witchcraft, etc. and she seeks the help of the Magus and Wicca. The Magus sees Brida and recognizes (by the light in her eyes, naks! aura ata or something) her as his Soul Mate. When a soul dies daw, it is divided into two: a man and a woman and upon reincarnation, these two parts of the soul are your so-called "Soul Mates." Sometimes, it happens that a person has two soul mates and that is the hardest part- to choose just one.

Brida also reminded me of a Filipino movie, Tatarin, based on a short story, The Summer Solstice, by Nick Joaquin. No, haven't read the short story nor have I seen the movie but I saw the trailer back them when they were promoting the movie and that scene was what came to mind when I was reading about the witches' sabbath chuva, yung may hubad portion.

Yada, yada, yada.

For me, the redeeming factor of the book was the quotable quotes. Haha.

She feared pain, loss and separation. These things were inevitable on the path to love. And the only way of avoiding them was by deciding not to take that path at all. In order not to suffer, you need to renounce it.

And this one reminds me of a Savage Garden song...

And yet no one life is the same as any other life. It might be that we will never meet again, and I need you to know that I've loved you even before I met you. You're part of me.

So parang naiinis ako sa twists and turns (or lack thereof) ng books ni Coelho. Of the 6½ books, I only liked River Piedra and Like the Flowing River (dahil sa quotes). I think I'll be reading River Piedra again to find out exactly why I liked it and what sets it apart from the other Coelho books. My profe in Spanish actually said that Coelho should thank the guy who translates his books to English because it was a good translation, even better than the original. My profe claims that Coelho's books in its original language don't sell as much as the ones translated in English. I dunno how true that is but personally, most of his books are just not my type.

And to end this quasi-review aka bashing, here's another quote:

Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle. You can only know a good one if you have first tasted a bad one.

(And that's why I know Brida is a bad book because I've read so many good ones already :P)