I had no such plans to read this book. Not till I finished all of Paulo's collection and as I am a big fan of Paulo Coelho, I decided to read this one too. I love reading the whole collection of a writer. When I read the classics, I used to choose one writer and finish his collection and then moved on to the next. Once I get used to the writing style of the author, that makes it easier for me to understand their themes better.

Paulo’s style always invokes the long forgotten resting soul, which resides somewhere inside us but we either forget about it, or we tend to ignore its existence. The ever-present elements in his books are, self-discovery which the characters go through, the spiritual conquest and to believe in one’s dreams.

By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept is the story of an independent and strong woman, Pilar, who is studying at a small town university. Pilar doesn’t believe in taking risks, she has learnt to bury her feelings. She is too scared of changes which she thinks will only bring her sadness. She receives an unexpected call from her old childhood sweetheart who is a handsome spiritual teacher with a reputation of performing miracles, to join him in Madrid where he is going to speak to a small group of people. Pilar decides to accept the invitation. When she arrives there, her one-day plan stretches to a week’s plan, when her friend discloses that he loves her and wants her to stay for a week and after that they both will decide the fate of their love.

Pilar and her friend, both have gone through the state of denial first, but both end up accepting their love for eachother, but Pilar’s friend has more important tasks to perform. With a power to heal people and perform miracles, he has a long way to go. He has seen the Virgin Mary and believes that God has a feminine face,calling it as Immaculate Conception, and he has to spread this new message to the world. Finally, he will have to choose between his love for Pilar or Immaculate Conception. There she learns to love again. There she understands the meaning of true love. She regains her faith on God there.

This is Paulo’s third book in which just one week changes the life of the characters. First two are, Veronica Decides to Die and The Devil And Miss Prym. Message behind it is that it doesn’t take a lifetime to change things or yourself, one sec, one moment, on day can change you for the rest of your life. Again he tells us that one love leads to another love, which is more powerful, and how our fears and resentments keeps us away from taking this journey.

That is about the story. About this book, I did not enjoy it at all. Rather I started resenting the idea to read it in the first place after i read few pages. The story is way too dragged just to put some more philosophy behind everything. It has the typical poetic, rhythmic and learning elements of Paulo Coelho’s style but still it gets onto your nerves. I didn’t feel a single emotion in my heart for any of the characters; let it be Pilar or her friend. All the time Pilar was trying to bury her feelings which were not a big deal in the first place, and once she accepted, she again went a way too far for it. Paulo fails to make me feel the intensity of their love, or for Pilar’s friend’s love for his religion.

A great disappointment it is for all the Paulo’s fans. Its not that this book is without anything, Paulo’s convincing poetic observations about emotions and the reality of life is there. But still I felt a deep sense of relief when I finished the novel.


Recommended: No