The Winner Stands Alone forces its readers to question themselves. How far would you go to placate your pride and lust? What would it take for you to, like Igor, destroy universes? To all those who have ever dreamed of fame, and been envious of stardom…to what lengths would you debase yourself for the chance to grasp at the edge of that dream? And then Coelho twists the knife even further, by forcing young dreamers to confront the possibility that to achieve and maintain that dream, they would be transformed into something other than that which they are. Something they may not like.
Yet for one who displays so much wisdom and insight into the baser behaviors of humanity, Coelho maintains innocence and hope in the very end. That is not to say that the ending is light, because it is dark indeed. Coelho leaves us with two winners who indeed stand alone in their persons, their desires, their morality, their actions, and what they place trust and faith in. He leaves us to decide where the real winner lies; with success at any price, including violence and death, or with the flicker of a hopeful love that would inspire anything except a descent to violence and killing. Coelho clearly favors the latter (as one would hope), and seems to be patiently and hopefully waiting for good to triumph over evil.
But that chapter, that reality in our world, remains unwritten. Paulo Coelho has has taken us to the very edge, but refuses to finish it. He can’t, because that’s our job. All of us.
