MY BOOK REVIEW: The Prophet
I saw this book for the first time in the 1970’s and began reading it at age 8. Back then my mom was searching for answers and The Prophet (without annotations) was part of our lives as well as a bookshelf of other self-help and religious books.
Reading it then (my mom taught me to read very young) I scanned over the Chapters looking for one that piqued my interest. Every night, at dinner, we would read a meaningful passage before dinner.
It was just my mom, my little sister and myself.
I could not put the thoughts together to give them meaning. They were just words linked together randomly with titles I recognized
Love
Family
Friendship
Time
Good and Evil
Pain
Joy
Sorrow
Those were some of them.
Today, 4 decades later, I finished the book understanding more than I ever could.
The annotations at the end of each chapter were very helpful. Gibran wrote plenty of books and it seems mountains of letters to two women, one of them he proposed to and was turned down. The bits and pieces of his life are covered and I appreciated getting an even deeper understanding of how he “thought” or even possibly came up with some of his writings.
His thoughts were epic.
The book was originally published in 1923. The depth of wisdom he gives is life changing if you really allow it.
In today’s world we are wrapped up in instant gratification and this book forces you to slow down and absorb the meaning of each word, sentence, page and chapter.
If you are searching for the meaning to basic questions, Kahlil Gibran might help you find them.
This is a book to own, not borrow.
To be able to underline and highlight what has impact on you and your life and thoughts.
Since none of us are the same it will have different meaning.
I also think you have to have an open mind before reading this. Willing to see a different perspective.
To me, we are all The Prophet in our lives. We have answers to the same questions the villagers had of this man that stayed for 12 years.
We have people in our lives that want to know our thoughts on these topics before we leave.
I know I wish I knew my mother’s explanation of LOVE (to begin with).
Please read this book.
