From the dust jacket:
This is the story of Brida, a beautiful young Irish girl, and her quest for knowledge. On her journey she meets a wise man who teaches her about overcoming her fears, and a woman who teaches her how to dance to the hidden music of the world. They see in her a gift, but must let her make her own voyage of discovery.
As Brida seeks her destiny, she struggles to find a balance between her relationships and her desire to transform herself.
Brida is yet another novel on self-discovery by the author, but one which I personally found very difficult to appreciate. My assessment is that it is squarely aimed at naive and confused individuals, who are at a point in life where they have no direction, and no idea whatsoever what they want to do with themselves. I’m not being unkind; this is life. I’ve been there myself, and done that.
Brida is on a journey to understand her destiny and true potential. She explores themes of soulmates, reincarnation, and the interplay between personal destiny and universal connections. Coelho does manage to create a somewhat empathetic narrative that guides Brida as she chases down magical knowledge.
It is a challenging novel to get through, which did not make easy reading for me. I felt as if I was being forced to meditate and contemplate the very nature of the Universe through this journey with Brida, and forcing someone to do something is usually an antidote to relatability.
Brida is a little bit too far-fetched for my taste, with it’s extreme metaphysical concepts, overly philosophical narrative and a warning at the start:
In my book The Diary of a Magus, I replaced two of the practices of RAM with exercises in perception learned in the days when I worked in drama. Although the results were, strictly speaking, the same, I received a severe reprimand from my Teacher. ‘There may well be quicker or easier methods - that doesn’t matter; what matters is that the Tradition remains unchanged,’ he said.
For this reason, the few rituals described in Brida are the same as those practised over the centuries by the Tradition of the Moon - a specific tradition that requires experience and practice. Practising such rituals without guidance is dangerous, inadvisable, unnecessary and can greatly hinder the Spiritual Search.
Paulo Coelho
It left me wondering if I was reading a novel — a story about Brida — or a manual on witchcraft.
The warning was my first eye-roll, and this book has many such moments. It is definitely not for everyone, and certainly not for me.