Reviews for Brida

The average rating for Brida based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-04-24 00:00:00 Nathan Bartle Coelho's Alchemist is one of my favorite books. I've read it twice, and both times its simple story and straightforward Universal Truths have stirred me. Brida tells a similar story about a youth who feels herself tugged onto a unique path toward greatness. But lightning has not struck twice. This is a book of only 200 pages, yet it took me almost a month to read, and not only because I was grading hundreds of research papers at the same time. It discusses a 21-year-old Irish girl (Brida) who is strangely drawn to a local forest-living Magus who describes his profession as Teacher of the Tradition of the Sun, whatever that is. Brida goes to him for "lessons," and he leaves her alone on a rock in the middle of the forest. This annoys her, so she finds herself a different teacher, this one a middle-aged woman named Wicca, who is a Teacher of the Tradition of the Moon, whatever that is, and through a variety of mystic gizmos and hallucinations, she informs Brida that she is a witch. Brida has been a witch in all her previous lives, will be a witch again in future lives. Being a witch is her Gift. Now, for some reason, I've read several books about witches this year, but Brida is certainly the first in which the witches are devout God-loving Christians. I mean, the witches do typical Pagan witch things -- they bemoan their ancestors who were burned at stakes, they dance naked around bonfires in the forest, etc. -- but they also talk incessantly about God and His plan for witches, who are His Gardeners of the Universe. This intrigued me for a while, but I decided I was ready to move onto another book about the time Wicca informs Brida that the only way to truly connect with God was to have an intense orgasm. This Brida accomplishes twice, with two different Soul Mates, and both times in the public outdoors. Oh brother. Perhaps you've noticed how many times I've capitalized non-proper nouns in this review. Perhaps you've been distracted by the same. If so, Brida certainly isn't a book for you. In every paragraph Coelho introduces some kind of Universal Truth (that phrase itself is capitalized in the novel) that we as readers are apparently intended to take to heart. Some of these are legitimate life lessons (everyone has a Gift, but only a lucky few seem able to discover and utilize it), while others are silly (God allowed Adam and Eve to fall from Grace because He needed the "Universe" to be set in motion). He does the same in The Alchemist, but the strength of that book is its focus. Here, there were so many Truths that I was at first overwhelmed, later confused, and ultimately so annoyed that I found myself skipping over them.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-01-16 00:00:00 Harold Price "So what is magic?" she asked. …"Magic is a bridge," he said at last, " a bridge that allows you to walk from the visible world over into the invisible world, and to learn the lessons of both those worlds." "And how can I learn to cross that bridge?" "By discovering your own way of crossing it. Everyone has their own way." My first exposure to Coelho was many years ago. I read The Alchemist at a time in my life when I was experiencing some major changes and I found very real comfort and guidance there. I enjoyed several more of his novels but after a time there seemed to be a repetitiveness to them that left me unsatisfied. Brida is yet another enlightenment quest story from Coelho. I enjoyed it for a while, but well before reaching the end, I found that I was getting bored. It seemed like I was reading Casteneda after he had scarfed down a peyote button laced with Robert Heinlein. Despite the mysterious base of the subject matter, a young woman seeking to learn about magic and gain insight into her special "Gift", there is too much bright and cheery obviousness here. I recall once reading a book about auras in which the author assumed that after a few exercises the reader would be able to view human auras as easily as one might see the color of a hat worn by someone you pass in the street. There is that sort of presumption here, a presumption of a magic realm, a presumption of rituals that allow people access to that realm. Yes, it is a novel, but I expect that that is a politic way of marketing what Coelho believes to be more of a self-help book. Paulo Coelho - image from Post-Gazette I suppose it is possible that Coelho has some insight into other layers of existence, although I do not accept that as given. This book made me wish that he had made better use of what mystical powers or insights he might have to have written a more engaging story. Read /posted - 2009 Revised/re-posted -12/18/15