I understand the sentiment towards such stories but they always piss me off. So he couldn't change his unhealthy habits when everything was 'normal'? He couldn't learn how to use computers because he had his excuses. Those characters are always shown as poor victims of their environment, family, society etc. It's never their own fault. When he had 'normal' life he could not bother to change, but after tragic event he suddenly changes himself totally. Can push through any problem, any hardship and so on. It reads like a damn shounen manga ffs, magical transformation in the background and everything is OK in its own way. For me it's "I want to live in the mountains like trappers did" kind of story for big boys.