11 minutes

When I was waiting in the queue for security control next to a last minute buy bookshop, I ran into a book of Paulo Coelho with the name “11 minutes”. I had not heard of it before. Knowing the other books of this author, I thought it would be a good reading during my stay in London before sleeping. It turned out to be an interesting book and I really enjoyed reading it.

I think in some sense this book of Coelho has a bit of different flavor from his other books. Although you can see that the same spirit of author governing this one as well.

It is about the life a girl who made her choice to become a prostitute for a short period in her life. I like the way the book is written. First, like some of his other books of him Brida, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept and Veronika Decides to Die, in which he has written with language and the point of view of a woman. When you read it you feel it, as if he tells what your heart wants to say. I don’t know maybe I should not be surprised, because human nature reflects more of the similarity than the difference in sexuality.

This book also impressed me by describing the very first love of the girl with all its sensitivity and fragility. He beautifully expresses the very first dreams and fantasies of girls about their first love. How intense the desire is, how fast the mind goes to plan all the future life, the absolute way of looking at first love that this is it, the first and the last. However it does not take them that long to realize that the game of life is much more intriguing than the simple and colorful world of dreams. People show different reactions when their dreams about their first love do not manifest themselves in reality.
Some just take lessons from it and try to find the prince charm of their life somewhere else and some other time. Another group of people mourn about it and it might take them long if not forever to get over it. Some even show reactions by revenging themselves or the people around them. Independent of approach taken, the image of the first dream remains there in the heart forever.

I found the book instructive as well. Now I understand human being including the prostitutes better. Before I was always wondering how a woman can sell her body to so many people. Although I would never do it, now I can appreciate these people better.

Another point which is very beautifully reflected in this book is the insecurity of men and generally human independent of their status and success. How elegantly he expresses the need of men and women to unite so as to calm down and relieve each other.

There is some irony in the time of reading Coelho books. I read Veronica when I wanted to die and I ran into this book when I felt love. As if there is some synchrony between the times he writes the books and my needs at the moment.