A while ago I bought this book from Aksara. As a passionate Paulo Coelho fan, I actually refused to buy this very edition that was widely available in the market. My reason was simply artistic: This was a large print edition, which of course wouldn’t sit nicely on the bookshelf with my other paperback-sized Coelho-s. (I know I am crazy). But whew, Aksara did change my mind that fateful day. All they did was just applying a nice little red sticker that read: 50% off. There they’ve changed my buying behavior on the spot.
Then it was sorta collecting dust on the ever-growing “books to read” pile until Mr. Beau picked it up. “Jiahhh, you finally bought this book! You should read it, I was just reading the local version. It was certainly different from the Paulo that you might know!” he claimed.
Wow, that fast eh? I didn’t know how Gramedia managed to do its magic in only several months. Before long I would spend the next 3 days finishing off the particular piece. Then I realized that I was attacked by this heavy migraine. Still unsure that the headache came from reading the book or from the “Jiahhh” expression that my Beau had utilized too much lately. But I knew that I was really, really disturbed.
High Alert: Spoilers for those who intend to read this book.
Paulo indeed introduced a very different style of writing this time. The use of a fast-paced thriller approach somehow eliminates the “teacher” technique. The teacher style he rampantly used to enlighten us, his disciples, previously. However, this new writing might also gain more public audience onto his regular reader, a.k.a people (who’s struggling to get) on the path of their personal illuminations.
A little too documentary for me to be read as a novel. As if he wanted to show a proof of how ignoramus a humani can be. Followed by their fatal consequences if the ignorant should keep his ignorance. Thus becoming the main disturbance for me: This novel was very dark, almost as a flip-side of what he’d preached normally.
As if it was bad to work hard to become a very unique model. As if being a great actress was just for people whose only aim was visibility. As if it was wrong to finally place yourself in the world of the Superclass. As if all movie-distributors would be financed by dirty money in one or other cases.
Wasn’t he the one who preached: Nothing is impossible if you really work toward your goals? Well, if this is your way of attacking human’s vanities then I hope that it wouldn’t go in vain rapidly as the world is still transfixed by the world of celebrities, glamour and glitz.
I never minded that many other hopeful characters seemed to vanish abruptly to convey his messages. I also didn’t mind that it had a gory ending. Never enjoyed much happy ending movies anyway.
But I did despise the fact that the book had a strong connection to the life that I am leading today.
From the Character Ha:
There was this character Ha, who married this woman Ev. And was so in love with Ev thus he never asked her past, her feelings, her needs, her being with him. Just because he was afraid to lose her. Ev was living with someone who seemed to enjoy the lie. That someone pictured resembled Beau. Someone who’d rather not ask if I was having any problem with him. Someone who pretended that everything was okay. Someone who lived a constant fear of loosing me.
Everything I said was seemingly ignored. Nothing changed. Nothing improved. Nothing transformed. Nothing grew. The flicker then began to die within.
From the Character Ig:
And then there was this character Ig, who did very nasty things in order to get the love of Ev back into his life. He was so in love with Ev, he would reach the top where he thought his achievements would please Ev. His journey to become successful then made their relationship sour. Then Ig slowly became another person, a monster perhaps. Finally, Ev left Ig after her first knowledge of what Ig might do in order to keep the relationship.
Beau also believed that love could transform anything, became the strongest glue to any relationship. He was of course right. But he forgot to acknowledge that even love needed to be nurtured, needed mending, constantly enhancing one another. Just as Ig, he was living in his comfort zone: that Ev was enough for Ig, as I was enough for him. But he never asked if he had ever been enough for me.
At the end Ig killed both Ha & Ev, while he never knew the exact trigger on why she was loosing her feelings for Ig in the first place.
Soon this will also end Beau.
I am dying inside. And you need to know why.
Prof. Utonium
PS. The professor was so disturbed that he stopped reading books at the time this writing was published.
Title: The Winner Stands Alone
Author: Paolo Coelho
Publisher: Harper
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2009-04-01
Copyright: Opening Image. Cover of The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho. HarperCollins © 2009-2010
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