The Prophet

Kahlil Gibran is generally associated with the countercultural movements of the sixties and seventies. When I think of avid Gibran fans I usually imagine long-haired pot-smoking bell bottom-wearing hippies listening to sitar music in the back of a VW bus while burning incense and talking about the hidden messages in the latest Beatles album. Imagine my surprise, then, when I googled Gibran and found him to be a clean cut, dapper gentleman. Indeed, though Gibran eventually came to be adored by the hippies, he was first a poet, philosopher, and author who created something absolutely lovely in the form of The Prophet.

Kahlil Gibran

I don't have much to say about this book. The plot is little more than a skeletal frame into which are inserted poetic essays on topics ranging from eating, to work, to teaching, to love. The essays are brief, a little bit elevated in language and style, occasionally obtuse in their meaning, but absolutely delightful to read. Much of it just went over my head, but I still appreciated the rhythm and flow of the words, and the beauty of the imagery. The book is immensely quotable, and portions of it have no doubt found their way onto calendars and greeting cards for decades. Here are a few of my selected favorites:
"Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul."
"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."
"For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live."
There are loads more quotes in the book, which is quite impressive considering the whole book is only about sixty pages long. In the end this book is short, enjoyable, and pleasant. Occasionally I got the impression that there was more form to the language than actual substance, but it was still nice to read.

Score: 8/10
Read this book if: You love beautiful language and frequent metaphors, and enjoy philosophical explorations of the basic elements of daily life.
Don't read this book if: You want a plot, characters, or anything else that most books tend to have.