The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist. In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage. In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time. Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S茫o Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children and grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005), The Witch of Portobello (2006) and Winner Stands Alone (to be released in 2009). During the months of March, April, May and June 2006, Paulo Coelho traveled to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella in 1986. He also held surprise book signings - announced one day in advance - in some cities along the way, to have a chance to meet his readers. In ninety days of pilgrimage the author traveled around the globe and took the famous Transiberrian train that took him to Vladivostok. During this experience Paulo Coelho launched his blog Walking the Path - The Pilgrimage in order to share with his readers his impressions. Since this first blog Paulo Coelho has expanded his presence in the internet with his daily blogs in Wordpress, Myspace & Facebook. He is equally present in media sharing sites such as Youtube and Flickr, offering on a regular basis not only texts but also videos and pictures to his readers. From this intensive interest and use of the Internet sprang his bold new project: The Experimental Witch where he invites his readers to adapt to the screen his book The Witch of Portobello. Indeed Paulo Coelho is a firm believer of Internet as a new media and is the first Best-selling author to actively support online free distribution of his work.
I am not going to write any spoilers about the plot so i don't ruin it for people, but I will spoil it for people who have been looking forward to another Coelho book by giving my harshest review. Now, i get to be harsh because I am one of Paulo's biggest fans, and I take his work very seriously, and trust me, I had been looking forward to this book for the past 6 months.
Needless to say, I was highly disappointed. I would have given the book two and a half stars just because there was some valuable information in it and it was a quick read. This book is different than the rest of his works, even though Veronika Decides to Die was different when it was published too, but it too included a self-search, etc. The Winner Stands Alone is seriously not your typical enjoyable Coelho read. To elaborate on that, I am making a list of the things i did NOT like:
1- Too many charachters that did not add any postitive impact to the plot.
2- Scattered thought about very random things and issues.
3- I felt as though Coelho went to Cannes Fils Festival, hated it, and wanted to complain about it.
4- I also felt he really rushed to write all the ideas and publish a book without really formulating the full scope on the characters, the story, and the plot.
5- Knowing Coelho's background, I believe that he felt as though there were so many wrong things in the world that he would like to fix but cannot, and therefore decided to include them in a book so that people's interest in these issues is triggered, (e.g. blood diamonds, going "green", teenage violence, apathy and indifference, economic inequality, superfecialness, plastic surgeries, etc).
6- The book was generally just very negative, which is really unlike Coelho. He made it seem that everyone is unhappy, and there is no way that anyone at any positision or situation or lifestyle can ever achieve real true happiness. Everyone was miserable in the book, the businessman, the writer, the actors, the directors, the distributors, the journalists, and models, the assistants, the police officers, and the general public.
7- I think that this book could have been devided into 6 books if Paulo took his time and really went into each character and developed its own story. Would have had a much better outcome.
Ok, so now that I am done ranting about what i did not like, let me tell you what I liked.
Igor is the most intruiging character: the vigilante, the lover, the man who believes he is doing the work of God. He almost reminded me of the Stranger in the Devil and Miss Prym. What I really liked about this charachter is that, similar to other Coelho charachters, he believed he talked to his angel/guardian/God, but the best part is that this entity is not a benevolent good spirit, it's spiteful and orders him to kill. It kind of freaked me out, because I started thinking "how do we know that the guarian we trust is an angel or a demon, or a mere figment of of our good/bad imagination?" So i thought this part was very interesting. I wish he's made the whole book exclusively about Igor's journey through life.
My last sentiment is that the ending was very predictable, and the book did not add anything new to my knowledge or intellect. I will continue to love Coelho, and I will expect much better in his next books to come.
---------------Pre-Read Review----------------- As I'm waiting for a "Perfect" time to start reading My Queen's first Crime Book I'll start a different kind with the Most Wise Author's only -kind-of- Crime Book -Did you get why I choose that ? - Anyway I Like to keep the theme of crime after my last 2 books too, One by The Thriller,mind blowing Author Dan Brown And by the "Real" Queen of Crime Novels Agatha Christie's Masterpiece Then Small break and Will start with my Favorite Author of all times book of crime..J.K.Rowling Mohammed Arabey in 25th Sep. 2013
I have read some of the most rubbish books out there but i just couldn't get through this one. I tried really hard though.This was the first Paulo Coelho book i've ever read and i have to say, i'm really disappointed. The front cover with 'international bestseller' across the top really got my hopes up.
The writing was overly descriptive. There were so many details that i just didn't care about. You don't usually expect such purplish writing from an old man. When i first started reading i paid attention to these details because in crime books, some times the small seemingly needless details turn out to be clever subtle hints. Hearing about the expensive wine/clothes/jewellery/watches etc. was interesting maybe the first time, but the author talks about these superficial things OVER AND OVER again. Most of it doesn't end up having a decent purpose. I mean, no one really cares about the brand of a man's expensive sunglasses, especially when we can guess that he's about to die within the next three pages.
And that's another thing: the plot is very predictable. There were some very big ideas and criticisms in this book for such a boring and loose plot.
The characters were also bland. There were some qualities that SHOULD have made some of them interesting but for some reason i just didn't care.
A lot of the things that happen are also hugely unrealistic. A rich man gets pricked by an anonymous syringe and goes, 'Oh. It's probably just a childish prank. Chill guys.' SERIOUSLY? Even if it wasn't some toxic substance (which it would very likely be, considering he's so rich and that most people hate the rich) i would AT LEAST be concerned about some blood-born disease. A mysterious prick - AIDS ANYONE???
Another thing: some of the random ideas he sprouts like they're facts also irritated me. At the beginning there's a bit about how airplanes only make people turn off their mobile phones so that they'll use the plane ones which are heaps expensive. He said that turning it on won't crash the plane so it's no big deal. This wouldn't bug me if the author didn't say it like it was a cold, hard fact. But the reason phones have to be turned off is because they interfere with the plane's gps system. Just because the plane won't crash it doesn't mean you can be an idiot and do it. In the end he says that he consulted a lot of people in order to get accurate facts for this book, leading the reader to believe that they're mostly true. i wonder who he asked about the plane. Not only was this annoying, it was also irresponsible. People absorb a LOT from books.
I didn't get to finish this book. I did waste a few hours trying though and i wouldn't suggest anyone else follow my example. Time is precious, and yours is better spent elsewhere. Minus the research and the obvious Cannes experience that the author has, any intelligent, bored, frustrated fourteen year old could have written this.
The Winner Stands Alone is such a phenomenal novel about everything in life. Though, it focuses on the world of the Superclass; but each of the other classes is a lower level of the Superclass. I loved how the novel was intertwined with various details of intriguing methods of killing and the tools, an explanation of people ordinary and unordinary; finally, a top-notch story containing tales and tales of the'universes' in itself.
Exhilarating and titillating; The Winner Stands Alone achieves so much in just a few hundred pages. It successfully describes the way mankind has come to think and the never-ending desire for Power. Coelho delves into the many aspects in the life of an ordinary teenage vendor to a member of the Superclass involved with the mafia.
I loved the way Coelho tells the story of each and every character in the book so delicately and with such intricacy in describing what made them how they became. Admittedly, there was a typical Guardian Angel of Igor part in it as well but it fitted in with the story. Igor is really a fascinatingly blunt character. He manipulates each of his victims in such subtle ways; yet with a definite craftiness in his manner. How he knows the anatomy, is so full of sagacity yet has a dark side. It was so breathtaking to read the things, that goes on into the minds of killers.
Paulo Coelho has done it again and this beautifully candid story about the complicatedly compelling Igor, Ewa who is forever stuck in time and about the unconditional capability of Hamid to love. Apart from that each and every character was worked upon and made into something more than just a name to be forgotten soon. Jasmine, Gabriela, Savoy, even the pathologist were all such ordinary people stuck in something extraordinary and out of their reach.
I would highly recommend it; my latest favorite by Paulo Coelho. The Winner Stands Alone is a sure winner!
If this is about to be your first Paulo Coelho book, DON'T READ IT!
Coelho, as an author, is capable of so much more, I promise! Reading this book will taint your perception of him as an author.
Having read (and thoroughly enjoyed) three of his previous novels (By the River Piedra, The Alchemist & Witch of Portobello), I randomly picked this one up in Vienna airport before a 10 hour flight. I now clearly lament the spur of the moment decision which led me to waste my money on this book.
When I first began reading I was mildly amused. Within the first fifty pages, however, such positive emotions morphed into deep rooted frustration. It quickly became apparent that I was reading a comic satire of the movie and fashion industry. The entire plot was just one big cascading clich茅- an annoying whine in the form of a monotonous character monologue about how things really work in 'the biz'.
I genuinely disliked each and every character in the book (especially Igor!). The bored, euro-trash mentality, and the repetitive whining of each narrative, gets very tiring very quickly. Every single character was flat and lacked a depth of emotion- they simply didn't come alive in my imagination- they were simply unable to take on their own identities, speak with their own voices, or come up with unexpected actions. Instead, Coehlo ponderously dragged them through a plodding and unnatural plot, forcing the reader to follow suit.
And follow suit I did. I felt obliged to finish the book. Maybe due to my abhorrence towards the idea of an unfinished book, or as an honorary tribute to the (usually) wonderful author... or maybe I was just hoping against all the odds, that by some miracle, the ending would justify the means... i.e the long and arduous road I had traveled to finish the book would be worth it in the end.
That miracle never occurred! I wish I could have my time back that was wasted on reading this book. Whatever it was that Coelho wanted me to get from reading this book, I did not get it.
I guess part of the reason I'm being so hard on this novel is because it starts out with a somewhat interesting premise and then seems to dig itself into a large abyss from which it cannot escape. The plot felt extremely stagnant in many parts, especially the passages providing explanations about the materialistic nature of the fashion and movie industries. I got it the first time! No need to repeat it over and over and over and over and over again!
As much I hate to do this (as I previously mentioned, Coelho is capable of so much more as an author); I am left with no other option but to give this book a 1 star review.
Paulo Coelho has picked up an interesting backdrop to tell a story. The parts where the novel elaborates on what is happening behind the glitz and glamour of an international film festival are interesting.
But he has failed in telling a convincing story using that setting and also has confused the reader on whether chasing a dream in the glitzy world is worthy or not.
A fantastic setting to give a memorable novel has been squandered.
I have never read any of Paulo Coelho's books beside this one. I have always wanted to read The Alchemist and By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. Somehow, I got to this one first, I guess because it was new. From reading the summaries and reviews of his previous books, I am still holding out hope for them that they are nothing like this one.
The problem with this book is he spends far too much time pontificating on the downfalls of society in regards to fame and money. We worship it, it changes us, it's so horrible, etc. I don't disagree with any of that, but be a little subtle. Your audience is not dumb. We don't need the point beat over our head every 3 pages. It honestly felt like he was just switching between writing a novel to writing a (badly-written) dissertation on the evils of celebrity. He focuses on it to the point of irritating the reader and making the story and characters secondary. Which sadly, the actual story is not redeeming the book either. Even the stories of the characters themselves are hard to get very invested in, partly because of the choices in writing and partly because of the overbearing feeling of "I am here to teach you a lesson!" I think he had some decent ideas as far as setting, plot, etc. Unfortunately that was ruined with poor writing and a feeling of being preached to.
I would like to know if any of his other books are worth it... :)
Personally, I鈥檝e never been a fan of The Alchemist or its 鈥渓ife-altering profundity鈥� But yes, I do recogonise it as a hugely successful book, given that almost everyone out there who can read has read it (and much like Chetan Bhagat鈥檚 bestsellers or Khalid Hosseini鈥檚 The Kite Runner, mass popularity of books in India is not something to be undermined given how precious little is read anyway).
Then I happened to read his Eleven Minutes, which a friend gifted some years back. I don鈥檛 remember much of it except that I was riveted by the story at the start and sort of related to its central character. But from there on, the story just goes all over the place and becomes a sorry excuse to peddle soft porn. Unfortunately, Paulo鈥檚 latest, The Winner Stands Alone, turned out far worse than I expected. Given that his works are basically translated from Portuguese, one probably ought to give him a bit of a leeway but it鈥檚 still annoying how the story is narrated in present tense (but this is something you will probably get used to as the story progresses). The bigger issue is that that the setting and story ring totally false. So what鈥檚 it about? A one line summary would read as a gathering of the rich and famous at Cannes even as a multi millionaire serial killer is on the prowl to reclaim his wife. And the glitzy backdrop of the festival offers Paulo an opportunity to ruminate on many of the superficialities that lurk beneath the surface glory and glamour. Ironically, Paulo鈥檚 narrative turns out just as synthetic as the world he wishes to critique.
The characters are predictable, namely, a small town girl - embittered by the experience back home is determined to become a model. Another one wants to be an actress and is anxious she might miss the bus, as she鈥檚 25 already (judging from the two books I鈥檝e read, one can鈥檛 be too pleased with the way Paulo portrays young women鈥�.in Eleven Minutes especially, I found a definite attempt on his part to titillate the reader). Still another woman wants to sell her idea for a film to a major distributor.
These are some of the important characters but the major one is that of Igor, a rich businessmen who is at Cannes in search of his wife Ewa, who left him a couple of years back and is living with a hot shot fashion designer, Hamid Hussain. Each of the characters comes in contact with the others and their destinies collide in small and big ways. Meanwhile suspicious incidents of murder are taking place.
As one mentioned, the story never really strikes you as true and the reason (among many) is because there is an awkward distance between the author and his subject. Paulo betrays a definite inadequacy in the understanding of his setting and characters, which is why a redundancy and tedium creeps in ever so often. Most of the players are stereotypes and the only character who could have probably held your interest is Igor but he鈥檚 portrayed as so cold, unidimensional and staid that you don鈥檛 look forward to any of his encounters with the other characters. In general too, there is not a single character you feel for. This is because they are just too typically portrayed, devoid of any real nuance, depth or imagination.
The only way this quasi thriller could have been salvaged was if it was a quick fire read. But that鈥檚 not the case, as there鈥檚 a colossal amount of preaching that follows every character鈥檚 action. The language tends to be heavy and along with the rambling, it kind of makes for an uneven, uneasy read. The only positive perhaps is the structure of the narrative, which moves back and forth, tracking a character鈥檚 back story and so on 鈥� the sole mental exercise that the novel offers you.
With Paulo, you expect him to tell a story, pause and then throw up an existential quandary. That鈥檚 exactly what he does here but sadly, the story doesn鈥檛 cut any ice so there鈥檚 not much pop spirituality to look forward to either.
The only one remotely interesting page I found was on Paulo鈥檚 assessment on what human beings consider 鈥榥ormal鈥�. Most of what we do is governed by what is 鈥榓cceptable鈥� rather than what we think is correct. But barring that, not recommend at all. At least with Eleven Minutes, I felt I had entered a real world for some time but with this one, you get the feeling of being stranded with a clueless bystander.
The Winner Stands Alone is the eighth stand-alone novel by Brazilian author, Paulo Coelho. It is translated from the original Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. The Cannes Film Festival: Ewa is there with her fashion-designer husband Hamid Hussein for showings and some high-power business meetings; Russian telco president, Igor Malev is there to demonstrate to his ex-wife that she needs to return to their marriage.
Igor鈥檚 obsessed with Ewa, and he had promised that if she left him, he would destroy some universes. He鈥檚 a cold-blooded killer with no conscience who easily murders random strangers: a young jewellery street vendor, an important and successful movie distributor, a first-time movie producer and a famous movie star, all without remorse. He refers to them as martyrs for love. But then his objective changes.
While the setting is well-portrayed, the plot is contrived and paper-thin, if rather bizarre in places, while the characters are one-dimensional vessels for Coelho鈥檚 preachy philosophical rants. Igor is obviously mad but the reader has to wade through chapters of his thought processes.
As the characters pontificate to one another, or to themselves, we get Coelho鈥檚 lectures on champagne, SMS messages, models, vanity, money laundering, tanning salons, gyms, police and all the industries commonly found at Cannes: movie, fashion, celebrity, cosmetics, diet, diamond, and marketing.
The whole tone is very moralistic, full of platitudes and aphorisms, and very heavy on message at the expense of good writing. It is repetitive to the point of being tiresome, making this a rather tedious read.
I don't mind being reminded of real values of life and superficiality of modern world, but a whole book about it is a bit too much for me. Too many characters and none of them made me care, not even slightly enough to be concerned if they get to live or die at the end. The whole story made my eyes roll on too many occasions. Descriptions were boring and long, dialogues artificial and the whole thing felt wrong.
I hated the ''tone'' of writing - it sounded as if the readers are too oblivious and stupid to see the world for themselves, and as if we all need to be told about life from a person who considers himself superior. Well, most of us are not oblivious/stupid, and pages and pages of telling us what we already know are not really necessary. It would be so much better if more space was used for actual plot, and less for tirades about everything that is wrong with the modern world.
It is ok to see the world as it is and be able to distinguish true values from fake glamour, but cca 280 pages of tirades about it is not something I find amusing or interesting.
A 480-page, 24-hour novel in Cannes, this novel takes you to a very deep world of fame, money, crime and a lot of bad things that come to your imagination and are written by the author Paolo Coelho, who is creative in entering human depth. In this novel, Paolo Coelho tries to show us again where a man may come from his actions and how long he will endure the pressures and problems of life, all of them on the celebrity side, and what they might do to connect to this fame and money and the amount of concessions and scandals that might be made to reach. The city reveals to us the writer of love, yes love that may reach the stage of the abnormal or we may say love ends with hatred and for things we believe we offer for lover or lover ,. This novel introduces us to a world that can not be new to us, but the new one is the depth and the events behind the scenes of this world of interests and crimes that may happen to people whose only dream is to reach fame, whatever the price and concessions to reach. This novel impressed me very much in which a lot of things may benefit from it and take you to the depth of beautiful and interesting dialogues in which a lot of lessons and lessons will be used.
Recunosc c膬 am avut o oarecare rezerv膬 卯nainte de a 卯ncepe acest roman. Admit c膬 pe Coelho 卯l cunosc mult prea pu牛in 艧i mi-am asumat pe deplin o lectur膬 strict comercial膬. Surpriz膬, 卯ns膬. Chiar dac膬 nara牛iunea-pretext se desf膬艧oar膬 la Cannes, 卯n lumea glamour a cinematografiei 艧i modei, unde un miliardar rus excentric 艧i dement ucide c芒牛iva oameni, nu am reg膬sit nici chick lit, nu am reg膬sit nici policier, a艧a cum s-ar putea crede (艧i cum am anticipat eronat 艧i eu), ci am reg膬sit un roman de moravuri, destul de bine documentat 艧i foarte bine scris, despre latura 卯ntunecat膬 a succesului, despre compromisuri, despre gustul amar al celebritatii multora din cei pe care Coelho pare s膬 卯i cunoasc膬 foarte bine 艧i pe care 卯i nume艧te Superclasa.
Cerita di buku ini mengajak untuk merenungkan kekuatan mimpi-mimpi kita serta nilai-nilai yang kita gunakan untuk mengukur diri sendiri. Berbeda dengan karya Paulo Coelho yang lain "The Alchemist" yang berseting daerah gurun yang kering serta minim menyebutkan nama tokoh, di buku ini berseting tempat mewah dan glamor serta bertaburan nama-nama sehingga kadang harus membuka lagi halaman sebelumnya untuk mengingat siapa tokoh yang sedang dibicarakan.
Igor mantan militer Rusia yang pernah terjun ke kancah perang di Afganistan, setelah perang usai dan Rusia telah terbuka Igor menjadi pengusaha telekomunikasi yang kaya raya. Kesibukan sebagai pengusaha dan sifat yang misterius membuat kehidupan rumah tangganya kacau sehingga dia ditinggalkan oleh Ewa istri yang sangat dicintainya. Ewa pergi dan menikah dengan seorang designer kenamaan bernama Hamid Hussein yang juga sangat mencintainya.
Cerita berlanjut ke Cannes Perancis karena Igor tahu bahwa Ewa dan suaminya akan pergi ke sana . Igor ingin memberikan 'pesan' kepada Ewa dan berharap Ewa menyadarinya bahwa dia masih 'ada' dan berharap Ewa kembali kepadanya. Berlatar belakang Festifal Film Cannes ini lah cerita petualangan berlangsung. Di sini berkumpul orang-orang terkenal, sukses dan kaya raya dengan berbagai alasan dan bermacam tujuan, dari yang baru melangkah ingin menjadi bintang, yang sedang terkenal maupun yang sudah mulai meredup tapi tenyata kesuksesan dan keterkenalan mereka berbanding terbalik dengan kehidupan pribadi yang penuh persaingan, kelicikan, kekhawatiran dan kesepian yang menimbulkan kebahagiaan semu.-Paulo Choelho sangat piawai menggambarkan bagaimana orang-orang tersebut berusaha mempertahankan eksistensi dirinya-. Disanalah Igor betemu dengan Olivia, Gabriela, Jasmine, Javits,Cristina, dll. Kemudian terjadi serangkaian pembunuhan yang ditengarai sebagai pembunuhan berantai. Hebatnya beberapa pembunuhan dari awal sampai akhir cerita hanya berlangsung dalam waktu 24 jam.
Membaca cerita ini mengingatkan pada cerita Sidney Sheldon atau Agatha Christie, yang agak berbeda di sini kita sudah dikenalkan dengan pembunuhnya dan mengikuti proses pembunuhan sejak awal dari sisi pelaku, polisi lah harus menebak siapa pembunuhnya. Apakah pembunuhnya tertangkap atau siapakah yang bertahan; siapakah pemenangnya yang pasti siapapun pemenangnya dia berdiri sendirian, kesepian, kebingungan.
Sebenarnya tidak ada yang namanya 'satu-satunya kesempatan', kehidupan selalu memberimu kesempatan lain
This is a later read from Paulo Coelho, which honestly, after reading three of his earlier works, back to back, I chose this one from the stack, based solely on the cover, breaking my decision to read them in perfect order.
This is a different Paulo Coelho from the mystical, wandering about the hills or the deserts in natures beauty, seeking and finally finding a way, the way, to seek and find your own way through the maze of your own spiritual journey.
In "The Winner Stands Alone" Coelho takes a decidedly urban, upscale bent, into the journey. In this one there are celebrities, wannabes, men, lost鈥攕ouled men, they are nothing but greedy. Greedy for women, being number one, and of course, greedy for money. Isn't it always about the money? The desire for it, that need for more, more, more, that greed will make a person do the most unlikely things, sometimes atrocious things, especially when a person has lost their way in the world. Lost their heart, when everything is meaningless except the next buck, the next award, the next conquest, well, it does make their journey a different one than Santiago's, that's for sure.
In the back of the book is A Conversation With Paulo Coelho. This is a thing I like about all his books, in the back are all these extra treats to read. Here is one thing he had to say about "The Winner Stands Alone."
Interviewer: "The Alchemist" is about following your dreams. "The Winner Stands Alone" is about paying a terrible price for following your dreams. What is the ultimate message you would like this book to deliver and is there a definite moral of the story?
Paulo Coelho: I beg to differ: "The Winner Stands Alone" is not about paying a terrible price for your dreams. On the contrary, it is about the gigantic price we pay for allowing ourselves to chase illusions, instead of our true dreams. I don't think it's a moralistic book鈥攅ven though I describe it without concessions as a "dream factory"鈥攂ut I do hope the reader will be able to see it as a warning rather than a manifesto.
I really don't know. Should I give it 2 stars because of the annoying plot or 3 stars because the philosophy in it kind of makes it better? Well, what really bothered me was the end. And the unnecessary details. Really boring sometimes that I would skip paragraphs. It's my second book by Paolo Coelho, and I just can't see why people are so like OMG! NEW BOOK BY PAOLO COELHO! HE IS A GENIUS- or something like that. My friend is obsessed with him. He considers it as a second bible. And, of course, we would end up arguing because I'm not 鈥渄eep鈥� enough *eye roll*. Well, I know one thing. I love philosophy but only the one that helps me to discover more. Not the one who talks about things clearly obvious- at least for me. The point is I didn't need to drop the book and start thinking and analyzing, so I'm truly disappointed. But I can't deny that I've learned new stuff in here.
But why won't I go with 3 stars? It's because of Igor. And his beliefs. Like he thinks that Jesus Christ accepts him killing for his own happiness. He's really a psycho but, he won after all. Some stupid people will have new reasons to think that religions are dangerous. But who cares in the end?
His many characters have so many different opinions, ideas and views of life ,it feels as if many people has wrote this & not just a single man(which is to me is a genius thing) , nice to have a book that's a novel , yet philosophical and informative , loved it much more than the alchemist Paulo has surely developed much in 30 yrs of time . And whats not to like about a book that makes you think ?
This book speaks a lot of the life of the superclass and that endless pursuit of fame , wealth and everything shiny and how far everyone is ready to go just to reach any of them.
The book got everything from the struggle of celebrity,to the struggle of the poor to crime world , desperate love , and psychological issues honestly im overwhelmed by this mixture.
He speaks of people from all social classes , the ordinary , the extra-ordinary , the poor , the rich and all those in between
This book jumps from one life to another revealing to you how life is so different to those in the bottom from those on top who are eventually controlling everything in this world .
From the life of the head of a mobile phone company ,to the famous producer , to the ambitious actor , to the new hit man in haute couture ,the young african model , the dreamy writer .. Etc . Who all came from different places around the world gathered in the centre of the world for afew days at Cannes where a series of strange events starts taking place and all these characters start to link to each other.
It tells a lot about the lies of this world we 've been told talks about blood money , the movies industry , the trend producers , the money makers
Cool terms you may find between the pages include "Misunderstood geniuses " " money laundry" "the visibility" "top line cast" "the Lucifer effect " "modus operandi" "controlled madness" "martyrs of love" sometimes it's unique to the writer others he would explain or tells where it originated from .
Every now And then he would throw at you a small bit of information in a short facts manner , which is fun and nice to know.
The main character himself is so unique it takes me back to my favorite type of books ,crime books and showing how people actually can be so delusional when doing something wrong yet convinced it's for the sake of the best (correcting wrongs ) as he called it. You would hold your breathe while the angel of death just decides to dodge one of your favorite character while not sparing others .
I was racing through the lines of the last pages,and it never disappointed me. P.333 i was chocking ,long since i met a book that made me feel this much of emotions.
The winner stands alone , but how far is he willing to go to achieve that.
A book I chose by coincidence and I can say in no time it became one of my favorite books .
Oh my, does he try to adapt some of Sidney Sheldon? Well, he failed. I hate this book from the first chapter I read it. But I continue read it with some faith that Paulo will surprised me. Yea, Paulo did...I hate this book more after I finished it. This book is totally cynical. About green program, fashion, movies, human, and oh, I don't know, the whole universe? What does it want? This is no romance book, detective book, psychological, nor religion. Sounds like a whole book about complains. Igor killing people to let Ewa know that he's ready to accept her back? Now, where's the logic for that? I read the book few times so I can find the thread between killing people and Igor's forgiveness for Ewa. I can't. In the end, Igor decided that Ewa doesn't deserve his forgiveness. So Igor keep killing...only now, he kills to honor the first girl he murdered. Perhaps in the end the writer realized that the reason behind Igor's killing is not good enough. So, he changes it. The writer, at first, wanted to put some unusual reason for Igor's killing but then ended confused. It will be more acceptable if Igor kill for a very 'ordinary' reason: threat Ewa to leave her husband or else, Igor will kill her husband as well. Oh well...I'm very disappointed perhaps because I usually like Paulo's piece. Though I don't always like the stories or agree with the book, I always found something valuable I learn. Still hope will find those in Paulo's other books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.