Well I shall be the first to give my thoughts on the book. My general impression is: MEH! I was fairly underwhelmed at the book. I found it to be a bit trite and bland. I think Coelho rushed through everything so fast that there really wasn't any character development. I really didn't care much for Santiago as I never really identified with him.
Another point of irritation for me was the major focus on the 'personal destiny' and that if you fail to make the choice at a young age soon you will loose it and regret it forever. It has a rather fatalistic approach on life and I disagree with that approach. Essentially, if you don't make the right choice as an adolescent you are going to live in regret for the rest of you life. I don't see how that is something positive that we would want to convey.
Also, did Santiago have any real trials? He seemed to have one trial but it didn't last longer than what seemed to be an hour or two before the solution presented itself. This had the affect of driving me further from his character in that, from my life experience, my trials last a long time and generally no solution is quickly presented.
I know that this is rushed, much like the book was, but I feel that really the 'treasure' of his personal legend should have been the experience and in the end the knowledge he gained outweighed any possible gold and jewels he could dig up. But alas, Coelho throws to us the most irritating kind of ending where the treasure is where you started and didn't bother pointing out that the real treasure was not the gold.
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