Review of Return of the Prophet by Hajjar Gibran

In reading this book, I couldn't figure out if it was trying to be fiction or non-fiction, biography, poem, or something else entirely. I found it difficult to engage with this book due to its lack of focus.

For example, the book talks about some of the challenges Hajjar went through. But it doesn't go into enough detail to feel like we truly know the author... by trying to be poetic, the book ends up staying just on the surface of what are timeless wisdoms.

Speaking of which, the wisdoms presented are timeless - but again due to the poetic nature, and the lack of focus, they are lost in a sea of missed messages.

One bonus is that the book is short - but even then it took me much longer to finish this book than it takes me of books twice and three times as long.

The book also seemed like it was trying to share timeless truths, but again the effort to be poetic overshadowed the truths in a way that makes everything sound good but difficult to really figure out what is being said.

This book is probably best suited for somebody who enjoys reading poetic beautiful words and isn't necessarily concerned about "learning" something new. Now that I think about it, the previous sentence sums up my review pretty well: I like to learn stuff from spiritual books, and I like to enjoy the process. In this case, I didn't enjoy the book nor learn anything I could apply to my own spiritual path.

On the bright side, the poetic nature of the book lends itself to some delightful quotes that are well-worth sharing.