{"id":413,"date":"2007-06-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T00:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=413"},"modified":"2024-12-31T13:03:12","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T00:03:12","slug":"the-witch-of-portobello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2007\/06\/16\/the-witch-of-portobello\/","title":{"rendered":"The Witch of Portobello"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><strong>Paulo Coelho<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><em>HarperCollins<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Otago Daily Times, June 16th 2007<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Caveat emptor: Despite the disclaimer on the cover, Paulo Coelho\u2019s latest offering is as much a new-age self-help book as a novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Told as a series of narratives by those who knew her or knew of her, it traces the life and spiritual development of Athena Kahil, Priestess of Portobello Rd. Born of a Transylvanian gypsy and adopted by a Lebanese family, Athena\u2019s connection with a higher power manifests at a young age when she foresees the civil war that forces her parents to flee Beirut for London. Later, as a young divorcee and single mother she is excommunicated from the Catholic Church and seeks other sources of spiritual connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">By way of dance, calligraphy, music and stillness, taught by a variety of mentors, she learns how to speak with (and for) the Great Mother and moves from acolyte to teacher in her own right. As Athena\u2019s following increases, so does her notoriety \u2014 ultimately precipitating her mysterious and apparently violent death. Although the technique of alternating narrators works well, the plot is served up with lashings of Wiccan lore and philosophy \u2014 to the point that Athena becomes a medium for Coelho\u2019s (and the Mother\u2019s) message rather than a character.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paulo Coelho<br \/>\n<br \/>\nOtago Daily Times review June 16th 2007<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[62,370,18,71],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-62","tag-fiction","tag-odt","tag-paulo-coelho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1379,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/1379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}