The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho

The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho was a huge disappointment to me, and it was a struggle to get through it. Tempted to put it down at several points during my reading of it, and I kept slugging through, hoping it would come together for me, hoping that I would feel the Coelho magic that his other novels are touched with.

Alas, for me, reading this was a waste of time.

From the back:

"In The Winner Stands Alone, Paulo Coelho has returned to the important themes of Eleven Minutes and The Zahir: love and obsession. He offers a suspenseful novel about the fascinating worlds of fortune and celebrity, where the commitment to luxury and success at any cost often prevents one from hearing what the heart actually desires.

Coelho takes us to the Cannes Film Festival, where the so-called Superclass gathers - those who have made it in the dreammaker's worlds of fashion and cinema. Some of them have even reached the very top and are afraid to lose their lofty positions. Money, power, and fame are at stake - things for which most people are prepared to do anything to keep.

At this modern vanity fair we meet Igor, a Russian millionaire; Middle Easter fashion czar Hamid, American actress Gabriela, eager to land a lead role; ambitious detective Savoy, hoping to resolve the case of his life; and Jasmine, a woman on the brink of a successful modeling career.

Who will succeed in identifying his or her own personal dream among the many prefabricated ones - and succeed in making it come true?"

The writing was disjointed, with very robotic and contrived descriptions of the celebrity lifestyle. Perhaps this was done purposefully to convey his distaste, or maybe this was his way of struggling with his own celebrity. Coelho, I felt, detached himself from his story, and I didn't feel him come in until near the very end.

I turn to Coelho's writing for inspiration, for connection, for the magical world that has the hand of some greater spirit involved. This novel was, in my eyes, the complete opposite of everything he writes about, and even believes in, and his unfamiliarity, or inexperience, with the topic was felt by me.

Thumbs down.