Eleven Minutes Novel By Paulo Coelho Review

Eleven Minutes Novel Review

Title : Eleven Minutes

By: Paulo Coelho

Year : 2003

Synopsis

Eleven Minutes is a novel that tells about the life journey of a young woman from Brazil named Maria who dreams of one day finding her true love, a handsome prince who will pick her up like a princess from a fairy tale. But fate actually said otherwise, as time went by, instead of finding her true love, Maria fell into the world of prostitution. In living his life as a prostitute he thinks that sex is always a matter of pleasure and lust, but this changes after he meets a famous painter named Ralf Hart, who says that he has a unique light and introduces him to the 'meaning of sex' purer than what he had known so far. Falling in love with the painter, Maria is struck by a dilemma between love and reality.

Review

In contrast to most of the novels written by Paulo Coelho which mostly tell about the romance of life and dreams, the novel Eleven Minutes actually tells about things that are considered taboo to talk about, namely sex and nightlife. able to make love before it finally reaches its limit. Even so, it is not Paulo Coelho if he does not write his novels with poetic words and is able to captivate his readers, he also always inserts the values ​​of philosophy of life in each of his works, also in this novel.

Although using different themes and topics from the novels he previously wrote, this novel has similarities with several other novels by Paulo Coelho. This novel tells about the fall and rise of a person, where he finds what he has been looking for in the midst of his downfall. This novel is a message not to give up and not to see things from one point of view, because even though it is a routine that has the same value in the eyes of almost everyone, it is not impossible that we can find a new point of view that may go against the current. main. 

The main character who has the name Maria, a name that is full of symbols of holiness and religiosity, is depicted in this novel much different from those expectations. Maria may be an innocent girl and only hopes for her happiness, but all that time has passed, Maria is now an independent girl who knows how to attract the opposite sex for her personal gain. Even though he was trapped or framed to enter the world of prostitution, he was described as quite good at it.

As is the contradiction that arises from the naming of the main character with what is attached to the name, also from the storytelling style of this novel in the first paragraph, the themes and topics used also have contradictions between the ideas the author tries to convey with the general public view.

Many people have traditional views when they hear the word prostitution or sex, not a few people associate it with lust and physical satisfaction, but what I actually found through this novel, the sex that the "traders" and "buyers" do is actually more of satisfaction. spiritually or spiritually. They come regularly to places that trade sex not to fulfill their natural lust but for the sake of proving themselves and fulfilling spiritual and spiritual satisfaction, that they are men who still have power, because what they buy is not the satisfaction of making love for themselves but satisfaction love that their partner gets. They are not stupid enough, come to that place just to make love and feel satisfied, because it can be done with their wife or lover, but they come to answer the question, are they able to give satisfaction to their wife or lover during intercourse? That's why they try to answer it with the help of others, in order to fulfill their inner satisfaction.

It was also told that not a few of the buyers came not to have sex with the seller but to do other things. There is a scene where Maria has to do things that are beyond reasonable to fulfill the wishes of the buyer by begging for forgiveness for the torture that will be carried out by the buyer. Even though they do it with full awareness and agreement from both parties, without having to be aggrieved party. This shows how the buyer tries to fulfill his inner satisfaction by buying respect, which is done by showing his strength and power when oppressing someone who is weaker than him, namely the seller, even though this is done in a pretense.

On the other hand, if many people think that sex traditionally is an act that unites two bodies, that's why in Indonesian it is called intercourse, but according to Rafl Hart, sex is more than that, namely the union of two souls. Rafl Hart introduced to Maria that sex is a way of communicating between two souls, the union of which is not only carried out by two bodies but also souls, therefore sex acts often leave an imprint on the soul of the perpetrator.

This novel is highly recommended for those who like stories full of surprises, also for those who like depth in looking at a thing or case and want to escape from the mainstream which usually makes or directs thoughts to a more superficial view. This novel also talks about the problems that exist around us, so readers can also take at least a lesson from this novel.