FICTION

BY THE RIVER PIEDRA I SAT DOWN AND WEPT by Paulo Coelho, translated by Alan R. Clarke (Harper Collins/San Francisco: $20, 210 pp.). “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept” is unquestionably a memorable book . . . but not a very good one, in large measure because it’s more allegory than novel. The allegory is a perfectly respectable literary form, of course: The problem with this new book by Brazil’s Paulo Coelho, author of the international bestsellers “The Alchemist” and “The Pilgrimage,” is that his seasoning romantic adventure with spiritual politicking produces more sizzle than steak. Pilar is a spiritually empty Spaniard waiting for the right man to come along and lead her into boring middle-class life; what sparks her to life is the rediscovery of a childhood friend, now a seminarian, faith healer and speaking-in-tongues charismatic. The seminarian preaches love, mostly for the Madonna, having come to believe that the female side of God has been overlooked, and Pilar falls in love with him (of course) soon after he confesses to having adored her since childhood. The problem: Can he love the Madonna and Pilar at the same time, must he give up organized religion for unpredictable human love? Coelho develops some narrative tension through this age-old literary division but in the end allows his lovers to have things both ways. This unwonted happy ending will no doubt lead many readers to find the book inspirational as well as memorable, but others will have nagging reservations. If a major point of the book is the importance of God’s female side, why must Pilar gain that knowledge through a man? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have Pilar’s role played by a man and the seminarian’s by a nun? Feminists, especially feminist theologians, should have fun decoding this one.