Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 133
EAN: 9780062513342
ISBN: 0062513346
Label: HarperOne
Manufacturer: HarperOne
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 1996-09-11
Publisher: HarperOne
Release Date: 1996-08-02
Studio: HarperOne

A Magical Tale About Forgiving Our Past and Believing in Our Future

The enchanting, true story of The Valkyries begins in Rio de Janeiro when author Paulo Coelho gives his mysterious master, J., the only manuscript for his book The Alchemist. Haunted by a devastating curse, Coelho confesses to J., "I've seen my dreams fall apart just when I seemed about to achieve them." In response, J. gives Coelho a daunting task: He must find and speak with his guardian angel. "The curse can be broken," he replies, "if you complete the task."

Rising to the challenge, Paulo and his wife, Cristina, drop everything, pack their bags, and take off on a forty day adventure into the starkly beautiful and sometimes dangerous Mojave Desert--where they encounter more than they bargained for. A masterful blend of the exotic locales, dramatic adventure, and magical storytelling for which Coelho's fictional works are renowned, this true-life account is at once a modern-day adventure and a metaphysical odyssey.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Coelho's Book
Comment: I have read all of his books... Too sad the copy I purchased was not available in Spanish.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Has gems...would make more sense on acid
Comment: There are some great insights into the human condition, much like in The Alchemist, but this story is bizarre to the point where its bizarreness detracts from the message being conveyed.

In The Alchemist the storyline served as a vehicle to convey deeper human truths, and these truths were the point of the book. In The Valkyries, the storyline itself seemed like the point. It seemed like Coelho wanted the world to know the weird magic/drugs/psychedelic jaunts he's been on; it's 187 pages ripped out of his personal journal with no real point. The deeper human truths felt like a literary afterthought.

If you haven't read The Alchemist, read that first. This book would have spoiled me on the author. I'd give it a pass.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A review of The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho
Comment: I found Paulo Coelho's The Valkyries a bit of an enigma. I suspect the author at least partly intended it to be so. In a nutshell, the author seeks to discover new aspects of his psyche, to develop new angles on his existing skills. After a consultation with his mentor, he and his wife set off for a jaunt in the Mojave Desert to find what it is that they seek. Our author is in engaged in a quest, a search for his personal Angel. The reader, I am sure, will be convinced from the start that she accompanied him throughout.

They wander off in full sun one day, take their clothes off (for some reason) and have to be rescued by Gene, who has seen it all before. He reassures the travellers that they will find their valkyries. And they do. They turn out to be a band of leather-clad women on motorbikes, ladies who have profound mystic powers which they practise amidst their regular partying.

I was a bit perplexed by the narrator who claimed to have trained as an engineer in one breath and then discussed the existence of the universe in terms of ancient Greek elements. I suspect that the high performance motorbikes relied on a rather more complex analysis of matter. But honing the skills of a magus apparently requires the application of ancient knowledge, no matter how wrong, whatever the context. And sure enough the revelations come flooding in and lives are duly transformed. I have just a suspicion that there is something in the observation that no matter what one does with reality, spirituality is necessarily a personal experience, its significance purely internal, even when shared with others.

The Valkyries has all the Paulo Coelho elements. There are short scenes presented in a variety of literary shorthand. The text is suffused with magic, religiosity and self-realisation set in an earthly medium. It's a quick and easy read but ultimately a satisfying one, even for someone like myself, who cannot suspend belief long enough to share in the book's experiences.

But Paulo Coelho is a magus and a magician of the highest order. He has sold over 90 million books and, as a writer myself, I will read more of his books in the hope that I might discover his magus touch, his waft of a wand that will reveal his secret. Even without sympathy for the detail, it's a lovely, rhythmic read.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Alchemist was good. Maybe Coelho's a one hit wonder?
Comment: Every page I read, I found myself shaking my head. Raising my eyebrows, tryingto speed read, hoping there woudl be some redeeming quality to this book. There was none. I was actually frustrated that I had wasted my time on this. He is no Salman Rushdie- but you might say that is because the book is in translation. Well that would be incorrect Milan Kundera's books are a case in point. So then I found myself trying to justify the lack of engaging narrative or believable characters in this quite frankly rather boring book by saying his style is different and very simple. Like in The Alchemist. But in that book- even though it had ideas that refer to certain esoteric philosophies- they were stated in simple terms and in a highly engaging narrative. I have no clue what Coelho was doign in this book. But thing i felt throughout this book was disbelief that he could write something like this. Very disappointing.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: What you get outta this depends on where you are in your life and spirituality.
Comment: There's a lot of wisdom and truth presented here in this book. The question is, will you or can you understand it? I admit that several places in the book, I would go back and have to reread something, and still not totally get it. But a little further and BAM! -This beautiful piece of writing would pop out and be clear as can be. I am thinking that what you get out of this book most likely depends on several things, like how open minded you are, where you are in your life and where you are spiritually. It's a metaphor people! (to those reviewers who didn't get it so they wrote negative things about it, which makes me think of how a lot of times we [some/most?] are quick to condemn that which we do not understand?) The things that you don't conciously understand, you most likely (hopefully anyway) sub-conciously get. Get it? - Course that may not be the case for all.

Book club choice? This book would make for interesting group discussion between the right people, -an open minded group who's not so quick to judge by skimming the surface. I think open discussions about this could bring a lot of hidden meanings out in the open because for example, one part that I didn't get could be clear as a bell to somebody else.

I loved this and am planning to read it again. And I feel sure that I'll probably read it several times throughout my life. That's the kind of book this is.

So, if you read it and don't understand, maybe it's not the right time for you? So many times, I have been drawn to exactly the books I needed for what I was going thru at that time. This proved that to me, once again.

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