{"id":610,"date":"2011-10-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T21:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=610"},"modified":"2024-12-31T16:11:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T03:11:15","slug":"aleph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2011\/10\/15\/aleph\/","title":{"rendered":"Aleph"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><strong>Paula 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, October 15th 2011<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Brazilian author Paulo Coehlo is probably best known for his new-age fiction (although he dislikes being described as a guru, his writing is grounded in and expresses his own philosophical beliefs). Although similar in theme to his novels, <em>Aleph <\/em>(Harper Collins) is a work of non-fiction first outlined in a series of as-it-happened blogs and describing a recent journey of self-discovery:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Twenty years after his first transcendental experience, feeling his spiritual development stalling and suffering from a crisis of faith, Coehlo embarks on a book tour through Europe in the hopes of reconnecting with his readers and his faith.&nbsp; The journey culminates in a train journey across Russia, a pilgrimage that forms the core of this book. Among his entourage is a beautiful young violinist who swears her undying devotion and insists on accompanying him, despite all attempts to dissuade her. After uniting with her in <em>aleph<\/em>, (a moment of sublime understanding) Coehlo realises she is a reincarnation of a woman he condemned to death 500 years ago during the Spanish inquisition. Only by confronting his past crimes and obtaining her forgiveness can he regain the true path\u2026&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">For Coehlo\u2019s followers, all this will constitute further proof of his spiritual credentials, while for the cynic it is more readily interpreted as an exercise in self\u2013justification by a man in the grips of a mid-life crisis. That said, the author is obviously sincere in his belief and determined to resist temptation, albeit by unusual means. Who can help but admire a man who, upon returning to his sleeping carriage to find a naked woman pleading for his love, lies down with her and initiates a past life regression?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/entertainment\/books\/crisis-new-age-faith-spurs-first-fiction\">https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/entertainment\/books\/crisis-new-age-faith-spurs-first-fiction<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paula Coelho<br \/>\n<br \/>\nOtago Daily Times review October 15th 2011<\/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":[126,370,18,71],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-126","tag-fiction","tag-odt","tag-paulo-coelho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","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=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1507,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/1507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}