A shepherd leads his sheep to an abandoned building where he sleeps for the night. In his sleep, he dreamed of finding his own secret treasure at the pyramids of Egypt. The following day, he reaches a town, sells his wool, and pays a fortune teller to interpret his dream. The fortune teller tells him nothing of value but as he leaves the fortune teller's house he stumbles upon a strange old man who claims to be a king. The king knows about all the shepherd's secrets and even his dream. The king tells the shepherd to follow his dream to Egypt, as it is an omen. Before disappearing, the king also teaches the boy to follow the omens of the world. Deciding to believe in the king, the shepherd sells all his sheep and buys a ship ride to the middle east. Upon landing in unfamiliar new lands full of unfamiliar people, the boy gets scammed out of the large savings he got from selling his sheep and is informed that there are thousands of miles of desert between him and Egypt.
The Alchemist is a pretty short book with a very linear plot following a shepherd's journey to find his personal treasure. It's hard to sell off of a summary, but the book certainly has a unique charm and many messages to convey. The book feels divided into mini sections of the shepherd's journey, each with its own characters and mini-plots. The shepherd becomes a crystal seller, travels through the desert, spends time in an oasis, and meets an alchemist. The book spends very little time developing each side character, yet they each feel surprisingly unique and fleshed out. While the characters are a bit hollow they are each crafted to serve as devices in the plot and each has their own mistakes and lessons to teach the readers. For example, there is a very faithful Muslim crystal merchant, who has always dreamed of a pilgrimage to Mecca. He has enough money to go, but he is too afraid of change even though he isn't completely satisfied in with his life. The shepherd shows his many ways to expand his business and earn enough to very comfortably pilgrimage, yet the merchant still spends the rest of his life dreaming of Mecca and never going. While most books feel like they build messages around a first established plot, this one feels like it had a clear message to give and built its plot around it. The book's main theme is to follow your dreams or your "personal journey". While the message is somewhat cliché, it doesn't stuff it down your throat but rather tries to convince you through the shepherd's journey. The book is also filled with many other subtle messages expressed through its plot and characters like how you can learn a lot simply by slowing down and truly observing the world and people around you.
Overall, this is a very unique book, that has a clear goal which it executes very well. It was honestly surprising how enjoyable the book was to read and it was pretty eye-opening. It's not too long so I'd certainly recommend almost anyone to read it although most people's opinion of the book will probably be based off whether they agree or not with its main themes. 9/10
Hey Kyle, I have a few questions after reading this blog. One, did the shepherd ever reach Egypt and find the treasure that was in his dream and two, how far was the journey from where he was placed to Egypt? Besides that, I agree though that the plot you gave made the book seem like it was just a straight line toward giving an actual message.
ReplyDeleteHi Kyle, I liked the summary that you made, but the following paragraph is really good at telling me what I would get into while reading this book. Based off of the info you gave me on the book, I think I might want to check this book out. I liked the idea of a gloomy and repetitive environment as a setting because I don't read nearly enough variety of books. Great Review!
ReplyDeleteHi Kyle, I like the summary style you used at the beginning! This book seems to be very intriguing; a mostly internal journey with a little bit of supernatural!
ReplyDeleteHi Kyle, I also did a review on this book and found it really interesting. I agree that the plot is very linear and straightforward. Great review!
ReplyDeleteI've always enjoyed books about travel and adventure. Your description of this book kind of reminds me of "Life of Pi" which I did a review on. They're both about a boy with many animals who travels to a new land and is very involved in religion/superstition. I like how you give us a lot of information about this book without spoiling too much of the plot. Great review
ReplyDeleteKyle, this book's plot seems pretty interesting. I like how you told us your own opinion about the book in the second half of your blog. It's nice to see an honest review!
ReplyDeletekyle, this seems like an interesstig book. Even though we are older we can still learn new things from media
ReplyDeleteThe plot sounds interesting along with the setting.
ReplyDeleteKyle, this review is great in the summarization and what I should expect if I read the book. Your opinion shines some light on what you think of the book and I think that is important.
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