by Paulo Coelho
Harper Collins.
Pages 375. Rs 325.
The Winner Stands Alone, says the title of this latest book of the bestselling author, Paulo Coelho, which has been translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. The Brazilian author writes in Portuguese, though he is comfortable with English and French, too. Coelho’s writings have been translated into 68 languages and 455 translations of his works have been published with sales totaling around 100 million copies worldwide.
The setting of his latest novel is the Cannes film festival. The protagonist is Igor, a Russian who survived the war in Afghanistan, but carries scars from these encounters. He wins in business, too, setting up and successfully running a mobile phone company, but that victory comes at the cost of losing his wife, Ewa, who is driven away by the demons that reveal themselves through the successive layers of success that Igor builds for himself.
No Coelho fan would be satisfied with a plain thriller, and this book is certainly not one. It is also a strong critique of Cannes. He lays bare the emptiness behind the glittering facade of high fashion and entertainment, the way in which handlers chip away at a person’s identity, and how success corrupts the soul.
Igor is at Cannes to win over his former wife, who has, in the meantime, married Hamid, a fashion magnate. Hamid, Igor and Ewa, a successful businesswoman in her own right, are all powerful and wealthy people who act as patrons. Coelho uses the term “Superclass” to describe them, they are courted, envied and emulated, and they set the pattern of what the rest of the world follows.
The three main characters have humble beginnings, have made it big compromising themselves in various ways in the process, and now are at a stage where their worlds, distinct spheres of influence, are full of people who are willing to bend and concur with everything they say just to be in and to be seen in the proximity of this “Superclass”.
Ironically, Hamid is the son of an Arab merchant who gained the respect of his Sheikh by not giving in the to the ruler’s modernization drive. The Sheikh now finances Hamid, who is in Cannes to look for a supermodel to be the “face” of his successful fashion line, and for an actress to star in the movie that he is producing.
Gabriela, who is desperate for her first big break, is selected to star in the new movie, and at the cusp of success, is “handled” by her minders. Here, Coelho plays an contrasts, her Cinderella fantasies rudely jarred by androgynous creature who tells her to undress, and “take your bra off too, it makes bulges under the dress.” The first causality at the doorstep of her success in her privacy and dignity, as she becomes an object.
Stripped of her clothes, with just her knickers on, she is lead to a hairdresser who, talking to himself, says: “when you go up the steps, they are not looking at you, you know. They are looking at my work, at my make-up, at my hair styling. You are just the canvas on which I paint or draw, the clay out of which I make my sculptures.” He then goes on to betray his insecurities: “If I make a mistake, what will people say? I could lose my job.”
Cannes is where the dreamers come to be moulded by the dream makers, Coelho looks at the Cannes beyond the razzmatazz, and his knowledge is detailed, through the picture that he paints turns out to be depressing. The three members of the “superclass” becomes victims of each other, while the aspirants are depicted as pawns, though the one person who stands out in Jasmine, a new model with an electrifying presence who manages to hold on to what she wants in life.
As you see the world of manipulators, their puppets and the show that they put up for the world at large, you do wonder what the world was like before all that. Aspiration for that which is materially tangible, placing values not on the “real” intrinsic worth but on perceived surface qualities, being caught in the trappings of success even at the cost of being lonely at the top –all these are facets that bring colour to our lives.
While none argues that they should be ends in themselves, they are makers of success, made all the more meaningful when you have a family and friends to share it with. Success is within, not outside the self, just as the real you is within, not in the labels you wear and the accessories that you have, or in ho others place you in their pecking order.
As Coehlo says in his blog : “We are part of the solution, if we go back to the real values of life, being “follow your dream” the most important of all. Not the dreams of our parents, or our partners. We should be what we always wanted to be.”
