- Paperback: 273 pages
- Publisher: Harper (May 25 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 006072675X
- ISBN-13: 978-0060726751
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11.1 x 2.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 100 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #907,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Paulo Coelho's astonishingly beautiful writing in Eleven Minutes virtually guarantees it the cult status that The Alchemist already enjoys. But what is the Paulo Coelho phenomenon? How can an author who (only a short time ago) was virtually unknown to most readers have taken the world of books by storm--and without the benefit of glitzy advertising? The answer is simple: quality. Such books as The Fifth Mountain andThe Devil and Miss Prym are enough to explain a considerable following for the author, with their atmospheric prose and involving characters.
Eleven Minutes tells the story of young Maria living an innocent life in a Brazilian village and is played out in a measured fashion, but with all the author's brilliant scene-setting (very lush here) fully in place. But then Maria experiences love and suffers great pain. From this point, Coelho has us inexorably in his grip. Maria's disillusionment with love leads her to Geneva where she finally ends up selling her body (Coelho may offer us the beauty of life, but never at the expense of its harshness). Maria's approach to sex is complex--this is no mere revulsion arising from what she is now doing with her life. And then she meets a seductive young painter, who may or may not offer her a new path in life. But does she prefer to continue on the dark sexual odyssey she has embarked on, at the expense of real love?
There are echoes of DH Lawrence in Coelho's exploration of the sacred and spiritual aspects of sex and it's a brave author who tackles a subject that can so easily slip into strained seriousness. That never happens here, and Maria's journey is one that the reader willingly undertakes; the lesson she learns are lessons for the reader. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
"Once upon a time, there was a prostitute called Maria"-thus begins Coelho's latest novel, a book that cannot decide whether it wants to be fairy tale or saga of sexual discovery, so ends up satisfying the demands of neither. In his dedication, bestselling Brazilian novelist Coelho (The Alchemist) tells readers that his book will deal with issues that are "harsh, difficult, shocking," but neither his tame forays into S&M nor his rather technical observations about female anatomy and the sad but hardly new fact that many women are dissatisfied with their sex lives will do much to shock American readers. In Maria, however, the author has created a strong, sensual young woman who grabs our sympathy from the first, as she suffers unrequited love as a child, learns a bit about sex as a teenager and, at 19, makes the ill-advised decision to leave Rio on a Swedish stranger's promise of fame and fortune. Maria's trials and triumphs-she goes from restaurant dancer to high-class prostitute-would make for an entertaining if rather prosaic novel, but Coelho, unfortunately, does not leave it there. Instead, he embarks on a philosophical exploration of sexual love, using Maria's increasingly ponderous and pseudo-philosophical diary entries as a means for expounding on the nature of sexual desire, passion and love. At the end, the story boils down to a rather predictable romance tarted up with a few sexy trappings.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Once upon a time, there was prostitute called Maria. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Once upon a time, there was prostitute called Maria. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reading Old Friends,
By CincinnatiPOV "Bibliophile" (Cincinnati, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Eleven Minutes: A Novel (Hardcover)
I admit it - I don't like surprises. When I go to a restaurant, I always order the same thing. After all, if I know one thing is good, why try something else? Surprise parties? I hate them - they scare the crap out of me. Plot twists in movies? I think they're so rarely done well, they only annoy me.So when I saw Paulo Coehlo's new book, Eleven Minutes, on the bookshelf, I knew I had to get it. After all, I adored the other book I had read by him, The Alchemist. I reveled in the idea of curling up on my couch with an old friend - how I equate reading books by authors I like. Eleven Minutes is a book about sex. You can cut it other ways, but that's what it comes down to. The title itself refers to the length of time it takes to commit the act. The world we live in revolves around sex, no matter how much people try to disguise or argue that fact. Rather than dispute it or make sex ugly, Coehlo presents sex as a beautiful lesson to be mastered as one gains experience. Maria is a prostitute from a small town in Brazil who gets convinced to move to Geneva, Switzerland, to become a stage sensation. Doing Brazilian dances at a sleazy bar does not bring the fame Maria wishes so she gets out of her contract and tries to fend for herself in Geneva. With no money and little knowledge of the language though, she ends up working as a prostitute. While Maria's entrance into prostitution is probably pretty typical, she is not who one imagines when they think of a sex worker. She visits the library religiously and during downtimes at her workplace, she reads and takes notes on matters of psychiatry, love, sex and farm management. She learns to provide for her clients physical and mental needs. She saves her money and she has adventures while she bides her time until her return home to Brazil. Coehlo makes an astute choice in having the main character in his book, which honors sex, be a prostitute. Through Maria we are able to see some of the ugliest sides of sex. But it is through her development as a character that we are able to appreciate the beauty of the act of sex. In his celebration of sex and love, Coehlo is a success. Sadly though, in Eleven Minutes, Coehlo is a victim of his own style. In The Alchemist, a book worth anyone's time, he tells a good story that has a tendency at points to become preachy, but the story itself wins out and the novel is excellent. In Eleven Minutes, Coehlo seems unable to resist his tendency to preach and much of the book becomes his opinion - his take on how things are and should be. I read the book Eleven Minutes quickly - I ate it up and when I had to take a break, I couldn't wait to start reading again. All said and done, though, I would rather curl up on my couch with The Alchemist, as it's a much more loyal friend.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
You can either hate it or love it.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Eleven Minutes: A Novel (Hardcover)
The book was very easy to read, each sentence kept my attention. Simple, intense, insightful, and erotic. I would definitely say I LOVE it!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of "Eleven Minutes",
By alexia (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Eleven Minutes: A Novel (Hardcover)
A truely deep book about love, sex and life and its crossroads. It explores various aspects of the inner self through the life of a 22 year old prostitute (not an 11 year old as one stupid reviewer wrote!) determined to make her dreams come true.It is controversial but anything that tells 'hidden truths' is labelled "controversial". Yes it does have descriptive sexual scenes of all sorts but they are not unnecessarily used, and are fundamental to the meaning of the book. Many seem to have misunderstood the nature of the book as "pornographic" which it is so far from! It is an enjoyable book for those who are open minded and enjoy learning about other peoples views on love and life.
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