living in the moment

Apparently, even if Paulo Coelho did write this book, I didn't really like it so much. Save for Coelho's writing skills and mastery of inserting spirituality into fiction and non-fiction (like this book) respectively. I never really liked the idea that this book has. Well, perhaps it could be explained that I believe in thorough Catholicism, and the book was bordering to some occultic stuff. But of course, minus the goth clothes and black candles, which is oh-so cliche. This is much more deeper and ideas were narrated in a mild way.
But before I say more.
What is this story all about?
Ok, so the story is all about a woman named Athena. But unlike Coelho's other stories, the reader's perception is seen through those people who knew Athena, or those who hardly know her at all. Athena was the daughter of a Romanian gypsy who left her at the orphanage. Following this, she was adopted by insanely rich Lebanese parents (this was when the civil war in Lebanon started...or so I think...).
The book isn't so bad, except that the idea of an alternative religion makes me uncomfortable. I mean, as a catholic, I don't think I'd have to dance or believe in "The Great Mother" to profess my faith. But neither do I call those people who do so "satanists." Perhaps, this is one moment when I dislike something, though I cannot explain why.
There are charming moments in this book, scenes when I was greatly moved. One was when Athena went to Romania to come looking for her mother. The brief story of her mom and her dad (which was so vague...) and how her mother had actually regretted having to have left her in the orphanage moved me. It was love, more than anything. And how she had cried and shouted "blasphemies" inside the church when the priest refused to give her the rite to communion when she divorced with her husband. It just shows how superficial a person can get when one judges another by what one does rather than looking into what one is. But these "tender moments" immediately dissolved when I came upon the part where Athena started meeting the "Great Mother" and being "Hagia Sofia."
I am young, and perhaps I cannot understand yet these things and maybe that's the reason why I don't like this book as much as I would want to like it.
Just like The Alchemist, this book shows the reader about love, sacrifice and passion.