I just finished reading Paolo Coelho's novel Eleven Minutes. I read The Alchemist a few years ago, and fell in love with it; this book was just as enrapturing. It took a mature, spiritual view to love, desire, and sex, by telling the story of a Brazilian girl's sex life, from innocence to becoming a prostitute to having spiritual revelations and pondering what it is she is doing. The book explores sex unabashedly, sometimes a bit explicitly, but it never seems racy or overly smutty. Throughout the entire book, the more explicit bits are used more in the monumental turning points of her spiritual growth.
The book, besides having loads of food for thought on its particular subject, has its own dose of amusement. Particularly towards the beginning of the novel, the author adds what are almost his own sarcastic/sardonic asides in parentheses as he narrates Maria's (the protagonist) life in third person, making humorous addendums; of course, this could be a device to show Maria's innocence and naivety. Additionally, there is a clear reference to Coelho's prior work, The Alchemist - there is a sentence about Maria having read a book about a shepherd and how he follows his dream (which, for those who don't know, is the basic plot of The Alchemist, pretty much).
It's only the second book from Coelho that I've read, but I loved it, again. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to read yet another Coelho work, The Zahir soon; there are no guarantees for me on that one, though.
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