파울로 코엘료는 글을 쉽게 쓴다. 그리고 재미있다. 처음 ‘승자는 혼자다’ 라는 책에 대해 들었을 때 너무 신났다. 깐느 영화제, 배우, 모델, 연쇄살인, 한 여자에 대한 사랑. 파울로 코엘료가 썼으니까 재미있겠지? 어떻게 얘기를 풀어나갈지 너무 궁금했다.
파울로 코엘료는 소박한 옆집 할아버지 같은 느낌이다. ‘인생은 이런 거란다.’ 라고 자상하게 알려주는 느낌이랄까. 그런데 이 책의 배경은 깐느 영화제이고, 사이코 연쇄살인범이며, 등장인물들은 작가의 말에 따르면 ‘수퍼클래스 Superclass’ 라는 상류층 계급이다. 아니, 최상류층이라고 해야 정확할까? 책을 읽으면서 불편했다. 편안한 니트에 골덴바지를 입고 있을 사람이 정장에 넥타이를 하고 불편해하는 느낌이었다. 파울로 코엘료랑 안 어울린다. 내용이 부드럽게 흘러가는 느낌이 아니고, 계속 독자들은 이런 최상류층 사회에 대해서 모르니까, 살인에 대해서 모르니까, 설명을 해야하는 느낌이 작위적이었다. 요즘 유행하는 미드의 코드들을 다 집어넣은 것 같다.
사실 처음에 야망있고, 돈 많은 최상류층들이 세상을 주무르는 과정은 흥미롭게 읽었다. 하지만, 그 이후에 연쇄살인범과 그 최상류층을 엮어야 하는데, 연쇄살인범이 범행동기가 뚜렷하지 않고, 살인을 통해서 연쇄살인범도 큰 흥분을 못 느끼고, 주변 사람들의 동요를 잘 잡지 못해내면서 점점 전체적인 내용이 지지부진해졌다.
- What being normal means;
1. Normal is anything that makes us forget who we are and what we want; that way we can work in order to produce, reproduce, and earn money.
2. Setting out rules for waging war (the Geneva Convention).
3. Spending years studying at university only to find at the end of it all that you’re unemployable.
4. Working from nine till five every day at something that gives you no pleasure at all just so that, after thirty years, you can retire.
5. Retiring and discovering that you no longer have enough energy to enjoy life and dying a few years later of sheer boredom.
6. Using Botox.
7. Believing that power is much more important than money and that money is much more important than happiness.
8. Making fun of anyone who seeks happiness rather than money and accusing them of “lacking ambition.”
9. Comparing objects like cars, houses, clothes, and defining life according to those comparisons, instead of trying to discover the real reason for being alive.
10. Never talking to strangers. Saying nasty things about the neighbors.
11. Believing that your parents are always right.
12. Getting married, having children, and staying together long after all love has died, saying that it’s for the good of the children (who are, apparently, deaf to the constant rows.)
12a. Criticizing anyone who tries to be different.
14. Waking up each morning to a hysterical alarm clock on the bedside table.
15. Believing absolutely everything that appears in print.
16. Wearing a scrap of colored cloth around your neck, even though it serves no useful purpose, but which answers to the name of “tie.”
17. Never asking a direct question, even though the other person can guess what it is you want to know.
18. Keeping a smile on your lips even when you’re on the verge of tears. Feeling sorry for those who show their feelings.
19. Believing that art is either worth a fortune of worth nothing at all.
20. Despising anything that was easy to achieve because if no sacrifice was involved, it obviously isn’t worth having.
21. Following fashion trends, however ridiculous or uncomfortable.
22. Believing that all famous people have tons of money saved up.
23. Investing a lot of time and money in external beauty and caring little about inner beauty.
24. Using every means possible to show that, although you’re just an ordinary human being, you’re far above other mortals.
25. Never looking anyone in the eye when you’re traveling on public transport, in case it’s interpreted as a sign you’re trying to get off with them.
26. Standing facing the door in an elevator and pretending you’re the only person there, regardless of how crowded it is.
27. Never laughing too loudly in a restaurant however goo the joke.
28. In the northern hemisphere, always dressing according to the season: bare arms in spring(however cold it is) and woolen jacket in autumn(however hot it is).
29. In the southern hemisphere, covering the Christmas tree with fake snow even though winter has nothing to do with the birth of Christ.
30. Assuming, as you grow older, that you’re the guardian of the world’s wisdom, even if you haven’t necessarily lived enough to know what’s right and wrong.
31. Going to a charity tea party and thinking that you’ve done your bit toward putting an end to social inequality in the world.
32. Eating three times a day even if you’re not hungry.
33. Believing that other people are always better than you – better-looking, more capable, richer, more intelligent – and that it’s very dangerous to step outside your own limits, so it’s best to do nothing.
34. Using your car as a weapon and as impenetrable armor.
35. Swearing when in heavy traffic.
36. Believing that everything your child does wrong is entirely down to the company he or she keeps.
37. Marrying the first person who offers you a decent position in society. Love can wait.
38. Always saying, “I tried” when you didn’t really try at all.
39. Postponing doing the really interesting things in life for later, when you won’t have the energy.
40. Avoiding depression with large daily doses of television.
41. Believing that you can be sure of everything you’ve achieved.
42. Assuming that women don’t like football and that men aren’t interested in home decoration and cooking.
43. Blaming the government for all the bad things that happen.
44. Thinking that being a good, decent, respectable person that others will see you as weak, vulnerable, and easy to manipulate.
45. Being equally convinced that aggression and rudeness are synonymous with having a “powerful personality.”
46. Being afraid of having an endoscopy (if you’re a man) and giving birth (if you’re a woman).
“It means thinking about just one thing day and night, going to places uninvited, shaking hands with people you despise, phoning once, twice, ten times until you get the attention of people who aren’t worth half of what you are, who don’t have half of your courage, but who’ve reached a certain position and are determined to take out on you all their domestic frustrations by making your life impossible…”
“… it means only finding pleasure in pursuing your dream, having no other diversions, finding everything else deadly dull, and ending up destroying your family.” (163p)