The Devil and Miss Prym, Paolo Cuelho (4.0)
I really enjoyed this short, thought provoking book. It
reminded me of Jose Saramago’s style, though with easier to read prose. Cuelho
investigates good and bad influences on humanity with the direct interference
of the devil and his counterpart on a small village in the French Pyrenees. The
devil uses a distraught stranger to infiltrate the village and offer a
proposition: gold bars that will insure the villagers’ future for the death of
one member of their group. The stranger wants to prove that life is as bad as
he feels and believes the villagers will accept the deal. They can ‘pick
anyone, even someone close to death already’. The scenario is complicated as
the stranger first explains the deal to Miss Prym, who will get one bar for bringing
the deal to the village. Success, change, family, and the meaning of happiness
are all discussed and argued. The reader follows the transition through greed
and fear through Miss Prym, the reluctant protagonist. The ending is a bit amorphous;
which oddly didn’t bother me.
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