It's Mr.Paul, again !

Brida suffers in comparison to Coelho’s other books, but works well within its own framework.

Brida, Paulo Coelho, HarperCollins, p.266, Rs 295.






Paulo Coelho’s readers can be classified into two groups, ranging from the casual and the curious to the fans and the fanatics. This dichotomy often results in a confrontation between those who defend the Master and the light of his guidance, a nd those who decry his too-easy flights into fantasy.
Venturing habitually beyond the rational, Coelho’s own life of exploration probably qualifies him to record the processes of spiritual journeys. These emerge in the form of simply narrated fictional accounts, lyrical and inventive, but lit by the freshness of a journal.
The search continues
In his latest book, Brida, Coelho’s search continues. Actually, this isn’t his latest; it’s just that it has taken 18 years for the English translation to emerge. And it isn’t really essential Coelho. Lyricism leaps out of his pages when he describes wild Irish landscapes and plunges into a devastating past along with his heroine, but otherwise it’s a pretty straightforward narrative; the stages of Brida’s search seem almost clinical.
The trouble with Brida is that it’s written by Paulo Coelho. Having become a superstar of mystical fiction, his books are heralded by expectation. He is surrounded by so many auras it is difficult to reach his books without them coming in the way. The redoubtable success of his other books have to be tackled first. And Brida suffers in comparison.
The Alchemist and the rest of the markers on the holy trail have to be disregarded, and the present book taken up on its own merit. We can only judge Brida within Brida’s framework; which, ideally, is the only way to read any book for that matter.
Simple framework
The story is simple. Brida is a young Irish girl who sets out in search of knowledge in the depths of magic and the inexplicable. She meets the Magus first, and is subjected immediately to a rather punishing test in the frightening darkness of a forest where she is left all alone to discard her fears and conquer her doubts. Unknown to her, she strikes a chord in the Magus. He is a much older man travelling in the Tradition of the Sun. Banished for a momentary lapse, the crime of attempting to manipulate his disciple’s path, he lives alone. After Brida leaves him, he waits for her.
But Brida turns to the Tradition of the Moon and the witch Wicca for enlightenment. Wicca appears more responsive to her need. On an outing in the mountains out of Dublin, she tells her: “Stay on the bridge between the visible and the invisible. Everything in the Universe has life, and you must always try to stay in contact with that life. It understands your language. And the world will take on a different meaning for you.”
Wicca’s guidance is slow and steady, and Brida finds herself understanding her past incarnations, her present mission and the imminence of her goal. She realises that her Soulmate, the other half of her cloven soul, the being she’s destined to be with, is also close at hand. Recognising him, she reaches another throbbing threshold. Her boyfriend Lorens would probably have become the third corner of a triangle in an ordinary love story; but here relationships are enduring, vast and riddled with many meanings.
Moment of reckoning
The final scene around a fire in a forest clearing becomes a moment of reckoning for all four characters in the book. Things aren’t always what they seem, and conclusions aren’t as expected, but a higher purpose determines the tide of events and relationships; it knows where it’s taking us.
Brida works well within its framework.
Paulo Coelho is a craftsman whose words pin down feelings and experiences, and yet somehow manage to leave them floating in the air. This mix of clarity and evanescence leaves the reader with the feeling of having read a journal of myth, a record of restlessness and reverie. Its simplicity engages him, while its mysticism allows him his own inner journey.
The characters are drawn with clarity; the Magus and Wicca linger. While the breadth of imagination is vast, the symbols and mythology of Christianity are constantly evoked, reigning in the possibilities. Coelho’s Brida is a modern young woman whose feet, like Mary Poppins, aren’t always on the ground.