The Shadow of the Wind

SECOND READ:

This novel was recently chosen by my book club, and while I read it in 2014, I remembered very little and decided to re-read it. I soon remembered what made it so forgettable: It’s an entertaining, plot-driven whodunnit that would probably make a good movie, but it doesn’t have the lasting “oomph” of great literature. The last 10% or so descends Into a tough-to-believe gothic romance, with levels of melodrama that quickly become tiresome. I raced through it, eager to get to the next twist in the plot or resolution of a story-within-a-story, but as soon as it was finished, I mostly forgot it again.

FIRST READ:

I feel like if I had read this book when I was 20, it would have been one of my lifelong favorites. But as an adult, I find the page-turner of a mystery to be overshadowed by the lack of realism in the characters. Everyone in this book is driven by a single aspect of his or her personality or history, which never loses its power over him or her, even though the story spans decades. That's just not how humans work! But if you accept the elements of fantasy and just focus on enjoying the story, it's an entertaining read, although I think it might work better as a movie rather than a book. It also prompted me to learn more about the Spanish Civil War, which provides an interesting backdrop.

My father left this book at my house with the comment, "I can't get into this one, maybe you'll like it."

So with that glowing recommendation, it sat on my shelf for months, until I needed something to pack for a long-haul flight to Europe, and so it found its way into my luggage -- not without some misgivings on my part. "I'm boarding a ten-hour flight with no wifi and no seat-back TV," I texted a friend before taking off. "I only have one book with me, so here's hoping it's not too awful."

Suffice to say that, as far as my packing decisions go, I have no regrets. The blurb that compares it to Alexandre Dumas written by Umberto Eco by way of Jorge Luis Borges wasn't too far off the mark.

It is not without its flaws, but I forgive it those because I'm easily won over by stories-within-stories; gothic themes of mystery, tragic love, fate, obsession and madness; and depictions of a particular time and place (Zafón knocks this last one of the park with his extraordinarily vivid Barcelona).

Like [b:Palimpsest|3973532|Palimpsest|Catherynne M. Valente|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320532857s/3973532.jpg|4019291], I love this book without being able to tell if it's a genuinely good book wrapped in the trappings of a guilty pleasure or vice versa.

A bookseller takes his ten-year-old son to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in Barcelona in 1945, where he is allowed to choose one book. The book he chooses is The shadow of the wind by an almost unknown novelist, Julian Carax.

The boy reads the book and enjoys it, and tries to find other books by the same author, but they are impossible to find, and he soon discovers that others are interested in his book, and he is made several lucrative offers, one from a person named after one of the characters in the book. He refuses them all.

As he grows up, he becomes more interested in solving the mystery of the book, and what happened to its author, and it soon becomes apparent that such a quest is dangerous, and that there are powerful people and forces intent on stopping him.

To say more would be a spoiler, and it is otherwise difficult to describe this book: a literary detective story, a tale of star-crossed lovers, a fantasy novel, an adventure-thriller. It's a cross between [b:Romeo and Juliet|18135|Romeo and Juliet|William Shakespeare|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Znj16qi9L.SL75.jpg|3349450], [b:The Eyre affair|27003|The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1)|Jasper Fforde|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309201183s/27003.jpg|3436605] and the film Pan's labyrinth, and more besides. At times, with the description of encounters with the police of the Franco era in Spain, it felt familiar, like the old apartheid South Africa, with echoes of [b:A dry white season|65249|A Dry White Season|André P. Brink|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170631767s/65249.jpg|63299].

A very good read indeed. I recommend it.

Lorsque j'ai dit que j'avais commencé à lire "L'Ombre du vent" de l'écrivain espagnol Carlos Ruiz Zafón, nombreux ont été ceux qui m'ont dit qu'ils avaient adoré ce livre et qu'il y avait de fortes chances qu'il en soit de même pour moi. Le résumé en quatrième de couverture me laissait en tout cas espérer de belles choses :

Dans la Barcelone de l'après-guerre civile, par un matin brumeux de 1945, un homme emmène son petit garçon – Daniel Sempere, le narrateur – dans un lieu mystérieux du quartier gothique : le Cimetière des Livres Oubliés. L'enfant est ainsi convié par son père à un étrange rituel qui se transmet de génération en génération : il doit y « adopter » un volume parmi des centaines de milliers. Là, il rencontre le livre qui va changer le cours de sa vie et l'entraîner dans un labyrinthe d'aventures et de secrets « enterrés dans l'âme de la ville » : L'Ombre du vent.

Avec ce tableau historique, roman d'apprentissage évoquant les émois de l'adolescence, récit fantastique où les mystères s'emboîtent comme des poupées russes, Carlos Ruiz Zafón mêle inextricablement la littérature et la vie."

Set in post-war Barcelona (WWII and Spanish Civil War), The Shadow of the Wind is a magnificently gothic tale about many things, but at the heart of it is the love of books. Hidden in Barcelona is an old and sacred place called The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, known only to the city’s rare book dealers and a select few people they invite over the years. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a home for books that the world has long forgotten. Each person brought to the library is invited to choose a book from its labyrinthine shelves. That book is then theirs to care for and, thus, no longer forgotten. We follow Daniel, the main character of this tale (and the series), as his father introduces him to the library on his eleventh birthday.

“This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens…In this place books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader’s hands. In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody’s best friend.”

Daniel selects a book, The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax, which drives him to try to track down all the other books written by Carax. It’s an epic tale of books, secrets, murder, and madness and it’s one of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever read. Ruiz Zafón’s love of Barcelona is spelled out in every rich description of the city’s streets, buildings, and people. This is one of those books that envelops you in a thick, velvet blanket of language and feels, effortlessly removing you from real time and real space, where sometimes you can actually hear the rain striking the cobblestone streets.

The Cemetary of Forgotten Books is one of the most romantic concepts I've come across in quite awhile, and it is in this fantastic place that a young Daniel Sempere finds a book written by Julien Carax called The Shadow of the Wind, and vows to protect it forever.

However, there is a mysterious man lurking about who is on a mission to burn every one of Carax's novels, and is trying to intimidate Daniel into giving up his copy. As Daniel becomes obsessed with learning more about the author, his life starts to parallel Carax's. What his research unearths about Carax's life, and the consequences it has for himself and others, unfolds beautifully in this nicely-paced, intriguing mystery.

I also enjoyed the smokey atmosphere of the book and the intrigue that surrounded the lives of the previous generation. The use of flashback, and the parallel stories of two generations reminded me somewhat of Wuthering Heights; the previous generation was doomed, but the next generation...that's all I should say.

Some readers may find the ending a bit predictable, but the motivations behind the actions in this story are not predictable.