Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho
In 2002, the author Paulo Coelho met an old gentleman in his seventies with his wife and granddaughter at the Grotto in Lourdes, in France. The man embraced him and told him about the importance of his books in his life. They made him dream. The words frightened the author because he knew that his upcoming novel Eleven Minutes dealt with a subject that was supposedly coarse, decadent, shocking... Coelho has dedicated this novel Eleven Minutes to that old gentleman, Maurice Gravelines, nevertheless, with these words:
“I have a duty to you, your wife and grand-daughter and to myself to talk about the things that concern me and not only about what everyone would like to hear. Some books make us dream, others bring us face to face with reality, but what matters most to the author is the honesty with which a book is written.”
After finishing reading the book, I was convinced he has indeed kept his word. He has been totally honest in the process of writing this book.
He sets his protagonist Maria on the difficult journey that ultimately helps her in discovering, and those among us who have not yet recognised recognise, the sacredness in what is known as ‘sex’ and to ponder why it must always be invariably profane, taboo. This book is about desire, freedom, love, sex…
Perhaps no one can write a book such as this in a subtler way. It's so pregnant with poetry. See how he starts the book:
“Once upon a time, there was a prostitute called Maria. Wait a minute. ‘Once upon a time’ is how all the best children’s stories begin and ‘prostitute’ is a word for adults. How can I start a book with this apparent contradiction? But since, at every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss, let’s keep that beginning.
Once upon a time, there was a prostitute called Maria.”
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