Book Review: Hippie by Paulo Coelho

I LOVE Paulo Coelho’s lyrical narrative style (do a custom search for him on here, I’ve mentioned his books more than once). He paints such evocative pictures and has such a marvelous fluency with language. I was intrigued by this title and the opportunity to learn more directly about his life, but found the format of this one to be a little too free-flowingly 1970s for my taste…

I was born in 1973 so didn’t directly experience the ups and downs and conflicts that shaped the formation of relationships (to others, to the state, to nature, to life and experience) in the hippie era. Perhaps that is where I struggled with this one. Nontraditional narrative styles (be they free-form or stream of consciousness or atypically structured) don’t tend to resonate for me – I tend to prefer my fiction to be a little more linear.

The gorgeous lush language that I associate with Coelho’s style felt lost in the format in this one and I had a hard time falling into it the way I normally do with one of his stories. I have had this happen with a few of his more recent works; I seem to prefer the style of the earlier tales. Still, nobody tells a story quite like Coelho… So while it was not my favorite of his, if you are a fan of a freer format that flows with the times (literally), I suspect that this will be a title for you…

Thank you to Penguin’s First to Read program for my review copy.