Reviews for The Witch of Portobello

The average rating for The Witch of Portobello based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-03-09 00:00:00 Lance Hernandez I always wished that Paulo Coehlo was my uncle so that I could call him 'Papa Coelho' and sit at his knee while he smoked his pipe. I think that he would be delightfully eccentric, and given to saying things like 'Suffering, if confronted without fear, is the great passport to freedom.' So, true, Papa Coelho. So true. If he was my uncle, though, I might not tell him that I thought The Alchemist was tripe, and that most of his books carry too much philosophizing and not enough narrative. But in The Witch of Portobello, he achieves what others have tried so hard to do and failed so miserably at (I'm looking at you, Marilynne Robinson). There was such a fine balance between story and lesson that I was never bored by the one nor overwhelmed by the other. The narrator of the story tells us right off that he's not going to try to write a straight-up biography, but that in the interests of objectivity (of a sort), he's just going to put down verbatim the interviews he conducted on the subject of the alleged 'witch.' From the journalist who fell in love with her to the woman who felt betrayed by her, from birth mother to adoptive mother, from teacher to student, are all given a chance to tell how Athena, born Sherine and sometimes called Hagia Sofia, messed them over. Each one recounts how she waltzed into their lives with that restless spirit and those grey eyes, and began throwing around the carefully-arranged furniture (metaphorically speaking). And then she died. Even though I kind of rolled my eyes for the first few pages and though, 'Damn, another one of these,' and even though nothing really happened in the way of a plot (Athena travelled here, learned this lesson in this way, travelled there, learned that lesson), I found myself sucked in. I would be on the Stairmaster, book in hand, and look down to realize that I'd climbed twenty floors without noticing. There was something strangely compelling about Athena, and being told her story from everyone's perspective but hers made her into this mysterious goddess figure, a myth that she simultaneously upheld and debunked at every turn. I'm usually very much not in to books that try to refine my soul (it has been suggested that this is because I lack said soul), particularly because the message usually gets in the way of the medium. But somehow with this book I found myself yelling, 'Yes! Yes! I will dance against the rhythm, dammit!' and casting off the shackles of this dark world (ok, really I just tapped my finger against my lip, murmured, 'Interesting,' and promised myself I'd think more deeply about it later, but you get the gist). In short, though the dialogue stumbled at times and each of the narrators spoke with pretty much the same voice, this book was a pleasure to read…which means I didn't suffer…which means I don't have my passport to freedom! Oh, Papa Coelho, if only you were here now. I'm so confused.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-10-30 00:00:00 Mike Huthmaker This book *really* made me think about who I am and where I am going, and who I want to be as a woman, a wife, a soon-to-be-mother, a daughter, and a human. I didn't always like Paulo Coehlo's work. I tried to read The Alchemist in college and the novel just didn't do it for me. But a friend recommended Veronika Decides to Die to me while a loved one was in the hospital for depression and I was struggling to understand what might be happening in there, and ever since, Coehlo has been one of my obsessions. When I picked up The Witch of Portobello, I didn't know quite what to expect. The synopsis said "How do we find the courage to always be true to ourselves'even if we are unsure of whom we are? That is the central question of international bestselling author Paulo Coehlo's profound new work..." "Oh. Profound," said the skeptic in me. "We'll just see about that." But all I know is this...the protagonist of the book, Athena, follows a winding path to enlightenment in the form of a female deity. And along the way she struggles to transcend society's expectations of her. The book is about the power that everyone has to find their own spirituality and fight against the norm. And in spite of myself, the novel made me feel able to make my own decisions, both practical and spiritual. Coehlo uses a number of narrators to flesh out Athena's story, and these differing perspectives add a real depth to the story line. As a reader, you like some narrators and dislike others, which gives you the ability to take what you like from each and leave the rest, creating your own picture of Athena as you go. This is a book to be read slowly and with a great deal of self-reflection. It's not a breezy beach vacation read, but it's worth the work. It's a book about soul, so get ready to grapple with your own.