Book Review: By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
"By the rivers of Babylon
There we sat down
Ye-eah we wept
When we remembered Zion"
Ring a bell? This is that famous, catchy, pastoral number from Boney M. Until last weekend, I never thought of this song as having historical and religious origin. This, apparently, is one of the Psalms - Psalm 137 to be precise. Psalm 137 is a hymn expressing the yearnings of Jews in exile following the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem [Courtesy - Wikipedia].
I came across this hymn last weekend while reading a novel by Paulo Coelho - "By River Piedra I sat down and wept". I had read two books by the same author before - "Veronika decides to die" and "The Alchemist". Both of these were good books. However, "By the river piedra I sat down and wept" left much to be desired.
The overall concept, style, content of the book was similar to the other two, but the story was not gripping enough. The entire novel is built on a weak story-line. The novel starts by the main character weeping besides river piedra, and talking about her sad story. The story starts with this flash-back, wraps around to come back to the point where the main-character started, and concludes in a few chapters. I didn't think the wrap around has been well managed, and the main reason for the main-character to sit by river piedra and weep has not come out strongly enough (I wonder if that is a strong reason to weep, anyways!)
In spite of the above issues, this novel has Paulo Coehlo's stamp all over it. For a Paulo Coehlo fan, this book will be worth a read.
There we sat down
Ye-eah we wept
When we remembered Zion"
Ring a bell? This is that famous, catchy, pastoral number from Boney M. Until last weekend, I never thought of this song as having historical and religious origin. This, apparently, is one of the Psalms - Psalm 137 to be precise. Psalm 137 is a hymn expressing the yearnings of Jews in exile following the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem [Courtesy - Wikipedia].
I came across this hymn last weekend while reading a novel by Paulo Coelho - "By River Piedra I sat down and wept". I had read two books by the same author before - "Veronika decides to die" and "The Alchemist". Both of these were good books. However, "By the river piedra I sat down and wept" left much to be desired.
The overall concept, style, content of the book was similar to the other two, but the story was not gripping enough. The entire novel is built on a weak story-line. The novel starts by the main character weeping besides river piedra, and talking about her sad story. The story starts with this flash-back, wraps around to come back to the point where the main-character started, and concludes in a few chapters. I didn't think the wrap around has been well managed, and the main reason for the main-character to sit by river piedra and weep has not come out strongly enough (I wonder if that is a strong reason to weep, anyways!)
In spite of the above issues, this novel has Paulo Coehlo's stamp all over it. For a Paulo Coehlo fan, this book will be worth a read.
posted by Girish @ 9:29 PM
4 Comments:
Will try to get hold of this book of course, if I can borrow it from you that will be great
sure harsha.. all you need to do in hop into your silver bullet and follow the scent of dosa combo at woodlands.. ;-)
Oh I loved the song!
Hey, hadn't heard of this guy. I am still plodding through Ayn Rand and Douglas Adams.
Will take a look at these books too...
Thanks Girish!
Douglas Adams is one of my all time favorite authors.. Paulo Coehlo is good too, but in a different style.. tried reading Ayn Rand many times, but the size of the book was an impediment.. ;-)
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