The Witch of Portobello - Paulo Coelho

The Witch of Portabello by Paul Coelho

Paul Coelho was born in Brazil in 1949. He always wanted an artistic career but his father was an engineer and thought his ideas of being a writer were a sign of mental instability. When he was only 17 his father put him in a mental institution for electroconvulsive therapy twice. He was sent there again after he became involved with a theatre group and was working as a journalist. Despite this ...
...written after he had walked the Santiago de Compostello pilgrimage trial in Northern Spain, the book was called ‘The Pilgrimage’. His next book was ‘The Alchemist’ which was not an immediate success on first printing but became a best seller at its next publication.

‘The witch of Portabella’ is an exploration of “ How can we find the courage to be true to ourselves – even if we are unsure of who we are?

It is essentially ... more

The Witch of Portabello by Paul Coelho

Paul Coelho was born in Brazil in 1949. He always wanted an artistic career but his father was an engineer and thought his ideas of being a writer were a sign of mental instability. When he was only 17 his father put him in a mental institution for electroconvulsive therapy twice. He was sent there again after he became involved with a theatre group and was working as a journalist. Despite this difficult start to his career Coelho has become a worldwide best seller. His first book was written after he had walked the Santiago de Compostello pilgrimage trial in Northern Spain, the book was called ‘The Pilgrimage’. His next book was ‘The Alchemist’ which was not an immediate success on first printing but became a best seller at its next publication.

‘The witch of Portabella’ is an exploration of “ How can we find the courage to be true to ourselves – even if we are unsure of who we are?

It is essentially the story of a young girl who becomes a young woman and mother; she is born in Romania but abandoned by her gypsy mother. She is adopted and brought up by doting parents in Beirut and they later move to London. The story unfolds and we get to know Athena or Sherine through the many people whose life she touches.

There is a journalist who becomes infatuated by her called Heron Ryan who meets her whilst she is in Romania searching for her birth mother and he is writing an article on vampires and the legend of Dracula. After this his life and that of his girlfriend become entangled with Athena’s.

There is Heron Ryan’s girlfriend, the actress, Andrea McCain whose life totally changes as she becomes charged with the energy and need to pass on the Earth Mother’s mysteries.

Athena’s adopted mother is confused by her daughter’s behaviour and feels hurt by what she feels is rejection. She continues to shower love and support and Sherine or Athena obviously loves her and her adopted father but feels this energy calling her towards another path constantly.

Deidre O’Neill or Edda also meets Athena in Romania and she becomes her initial teacher and support in her journey of discovery as to who she really is and what her role or calling is in life.

We learn about Athena’s life in a random order through the people who take turns by chapter in the book. We first meet her in Romania but jump back to her adoption and growing up in Beirut. Even as a child she seemed to have a certain power of seeing what was going to happen in the future and would go off into trances.

At university she suddenly feels the need to get married and have a child so she marries a young man against his parent’s wishes. She has a son but they struggle financially and things don’t work out and they go their separate ways, Athena taking her son.

She is hugely successful in her job at the bank and at this time discovers she loves to dance which takes her into a trance. She teaches this to fellow employees and the whole bank branch is more efficient. This takes her to Dubai and a job training other employees to dance and improve productivity. She then moves to selling land and makes a lot of money which enables her to go out into the desert and learn calligraphy in order to try and discover more meaning to her being, to fill the holes that her dancing cannot fill.

It is a strange book which makes you ask more questions than it answers. According to the author he wrote the story in order “to explore the feminine side of divinity, I wanted to plunge into the heart of the Great Mother. I felt the need to question why society had tried to lock away the feminine side of God”

He said the novel was built on his own experiences, of people he had met and situations he had been in as well as portraying himself in the character too. He tackles the prejudices that people who are different face in our modern society. He feels that there are some things that cannot and need not be explained. It is alright to have empty spaces that cannot be explained in your life and we should respect and appreciate these mysteries.

Coelho talks of women as witches but he doesn’t feel that is a bad thing. He feels that women are more perceptive than men and that feminine loving side should be cherished and developed more in our society. Throughout the book Coelho develops a tension between romantic ideas of love and the spiritual path of love. He seems to be constantly questioning our perceptions of love. As Catholic Coelho believes in the higher being of God but says he does not support the Pope if he bans Catholics using condoms. He feels that this does not stop him being a believer and a Catholic just because of this disagreement. In this way we should all question our own beliefs and not just follow the path of conformity.

On one level this is a simple story of one woman’s life seen through people she meets but on another level we are invited to explore and question our own beliefs and think about what is really important to us be it religion, money, health, family or a bit of each and how do these things inter-act. It certainly made me think. It was particularly poignant as I read this in Brazil where the author was born and brought up –I always feel a lot closer to a book if it relates to the place where I am reading it, not sure if this is a peculiar thing I have or everybody has this connection.

I do find Paul coelho's novels a little odd sometimes and i have to admit I couldn't understand why everyone was so excited by the' Alchemist' but I did quite enjoy this but I wouldn't read it again, I never do read books again as there are always too many others to enjoy. I am sure someone intellectual would read a lot more into the story than I have but I enjoyed it at my level.

This review may be published on other sites under my name, Catsholiday.

© Catsholiday
 

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