I’ve read both. The Alchemist is fine.

It’s funny everyone around here trashes a book for being simplistic in its message then go on to praise To Kill a Mockingbird as though that author doesn’t hit you with themes using a cudgel.

The message doesn’t have to be hidden and esoteric and require a companion manual (Weisenberger’s Gravity’s Rainbow companion is excellent - I dare say it’s a must or the multiple references per page fly over your head) to understand.