The Devil and Miss Prym (Paulo Coelho in general)

Member Name: Whitehorse

Product:	Paulo Coelho in general
Date:	23/06/03 (2049 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting plot, Spiritual teachings

Disadvantages: The end lets the novel down

"Given the right circumstances, every human being on this earth would be willing to commit evil"

The Devil and Miss Prym is one of the highly successful spiritual novels by Brazilian born Paulo Coelho. It is last in the trilogy that concentrates on a week in the life of a person and the life-changing occurrence that can happen in so short a time. The first two books in the trilogy are By the River Piedra, I Sat Down and Wept and Veronika Decides to Die. It seems hard to believe that when Coelho first presented The Alchemist (the novel that made him famous all over the world) his then publishing company were not particularly impressed . After only 900 copies were sold they decided not to run a reprint. It was only later after writing Brida that his first two novels finally found some acclaim. After becoming a bestselling author in Brazil Coelho was finally taken on by the huge publishing company Harper Collins. After that he became a world sensation.

Having thoroughly enjoyed The Alchemist and Veronika Decides to die I was delighted to find The Devil and Miss Prym was what lay within a carefully wrapped Xmas gift last year but I resolved to wait until I had the time to properly absorb the messages that Coelho so beautifully inserts into his stories.

Chantal Prym is a young and rather beautiful barmaid in the sleepy ?perfect? village of Viscos (I presume situated in Brazil). We get the impression she is bored of the idyllic scenery and slow place of life. Regularly she takes a fancy to passing tourists and easily seduces them to her bed in the hope that one of them ? just one of them will prove to be her escape root. Miss Prym has edges, she's not wholly likeable but the reader can also understand some of her frustrations. The village seems to have rules and Chantal wants to break them.

Berta is an old women. She sits outside her house everyday and watches the world go back whilst communicating with the spirit of he
r dead husband. Chantal occasionally stops to speak to her but even she cannot really see Berta's true understanding of the world. Berta is just old and the village whispers that she might be a witch. No one knows that Berta is really watching over the village, waiting for the day the Devil will arrive and we enter the story just as he finally appears - walking alongside the stranger.

It is Chantal who discovers that the stranger isn't all he appears to be. It is Chantal that the stranger uses to be his messenger. The stranger will soon present the whole village with a moral dilemma that will force each villager to look deeply into their souls and force Chantal to question where happiness really lies. Meanwhile a rogue wolf roams the forest and ten gold bars lie buried.

The Devil and Miss Prym is a novel that explores the concept of inherent good and evil, the nature of mankind and God.

I have to say that I enjoyed this novel - right up until the end that is. Coelho's style is fluid throughout and his signature in my mind is the dreamlike quality of the places and people. Somehow his characters don't feel completely rounded yet at the same time they are quite believable. The village seems to be like nowhere on earth and appears to have little connection to the outside world apart from the Baker Boy and the odd tourist coming in for hunting season. Strangely rather than making it 'flat' this serves to emphasise the claustrophobia Chantal feels.

I was completely glued to the story, gripped by how the villagers would respond to a proposition so outrageous yet again believable. I was curious to know more about the stranger and why the Devil walked with him. I found myself reading faster and faster to get to the end.

Then suddenly the story was finished, wound up in a trite story told by Chantal. In fact it jarred so much I actually flicked back a few pages and read them again just to see if I had
missed something important. Reading more slowly I found that yes all the lose ends were tied up and yes each character had an answer to some of the biggest questions in philosophy but somehow it just didn't sit right with me. I found myself feeling as though there was more to know about Chantal and that she had been a little too manipulated for the sake of getting the message across. Certainly spiritual novels can succumb to message over story and we all know that the characters have been devised with a spiritual teaching in mind. So far however Coelho seemed to have avoided doing that - until now that is.

I would still recommend this novel as it's main premise is an interesting one that makes you ponder the human condition. There are also some very interesting points regarding Christianity and the Bible which made me think. However if you haven't read any Coelho before I would certainly say read The Alchemist first as that is a work of true inspiration.


*note* Not exactly the right category I know but close enough. I've given up hope of any suggestions actually being added now!

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