Eleven Minutes: A Novel

This book was out of the normal books I would read. If it wasn’t for my book club, I would have missed out on such an amazing piece of work. Full of love, lust, passion, life lessons, culture, location and emotion, I could not put this book down. I would recommend this to any and everyone looking for words that we have all thought of before but we’re too shy or embarrassed to express.

"Eleven Minutes" is the first book I have read by Paulo Coelho. Although there were some things about it which I felt detracted from the overall experience, I ended up reading it in one day, which is about as high praise as you can give a book. This is a story which has been done before, where a young woman (Maria) leaves her home to seek fame and fortune and ends up on the streets. What this book does very well, is show the difference between sex and love, and the writing makes one want to follow the story all the way to the end.There are some flaws though, some of which may be due to the translation. For one thing, the absence of drugs seems to be unrealistic, but perhaps that was the correct decision, because in this story sex is the drug that is being used. Another oddity that distracted me was how the narrative shifted from Maria's point-of-view to another character's for brief periods. Overall, these problems are small though, and this book is very interesting to read.

In love w this author.

Love this book and the meaning

There were things I both liked and disliked about this story. I liked Maria. I enjoy reading about strong female characters, and I thought she was indeed strong. She made a terrible mistake early on, but she refused to accept the results of this one choice as her fate. She set a goal of getting out of her fallen lifestyle and she never gave up. I also liked Ralf when he was introduced. Ralf was a complex character who was heavily laden with emotional and sexual baggage, but he was searching for some sort of salvation from himself even though he may not have realized it until he found it.The story itself was hit-and-miss for me. I enjoyed reading about Maria's personal journey, but I didn't really understand how the S&M sexual experience was so profound to her life. I believe the point was that she is meant to find love within the context of a sexual relationship, or perhaps that she was meant to experience sex without the absense of love. So why did this require S&M exactly? It felt like it was there for token shock value to the reader, but frankly, it wasn't that shocking. Most romance novels are more graphic than this without including bondage or domination. It was more of a distraction to me than a contribution to the storyline.*************spoiler alert***************I liked the part at the end when Maria leaves Ralf's house and hopes that he will stop her from leaving. She hopes he'll stop her at the airport and then she hopes he'll stop her on the plane. It doesn't happen, but she keeps hoping for that perfect movie ending to her story. She reflects about how life doesn't turn out like the movies, and how one never really knows if the characters live happily ever after when the movie ends. This was such a simple concept, but it felt very real for me because I think that everyone hopes at one point or another that we'll get to experience our own version of a perfect movie ending sometime in our life. She wanted and hoped for that moment even as she told herself that life wasn't really like that. This felt very genuine and real.So was it real then that she got her movie ending after all? I don't think so. It wasn't even her own moment...when Ralf finally shows up, he quotes a line from Casablanca. Her perfect movie ending was a copy of a moment experienced between two fictional characters in a movie, it wasn't really hers at all. At the very least, it should have been something more original.**********end spoiler*************Overall this was only ok for me. There was nothing really in the book that would make we want to either encourage or discourage a perspective reader. It was neither special or horrible, it was just right in the middle.

I love this book so much that I've literally given it to all of my friends.Sure, at first glance, it's a book about sex, but once you dig a bit deeper you'll find a book about the complexities of love. From love of self to romantic love.Coelho bravely attempts to tackle questions such as: what is love? how do I love? how do I receive love? how do I not confuse sex with love? how do I use sex to show love? Each answer left me pondering my own ability to love.I found this book moving and filled with moments that required a highlighter and some prayer. At it's conclusion, I found that it really changed my young views on love for the better.I dare you to give it a try.

Exceptionally powerful story - well told. Coelho explores the elements of physical, emotional and sacred sensuality - pain and pleasure, love and lust, joy and despair. In exploring herself, starting as a teen and up through her 23rd year, the protagonist, Maria, gains, loses and regains the ability to love both emotionally and physically. The gains and losees, pains and experiences are those of every person, just with greater emphasis and intensity in the story. She meets the librarian, the professional, those that truly feel, those that act, and those for whom the act itself has little depth or meaning. The vulnerability of all people is exposed, and the psychology of physical intimacy takes on new meaning as Maria plays each part as part of her profession.The book isn't fully uplifting, and the end is as predictable as Coelho indicates it will be. Nevertheless, the discussion of the sacred and secular elements of love, lust and the physical nature of relationships really resonate as profound. Coelho probably spends a bit too much time on the anatomy, but it doesn't detract from the power of the message.

As someone with a background in sex work this book is rich in the essence of those experiences as well as the challenges and emotional blocks towards intimacy. He out did himself I saw many poor reviews and imagine perhaps this must be a relatable topic for someone to grasp how well written this was.