The Shadow of the Wind
Jul. 27th, 2006 03:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selene_13I have just finished reading The Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and because I'm putting off housecleaning (my least favourite job evah), I'm rambling a bit about it.
First, I enjoyed it. It reads as a modern day version (though not too modern) of a classic Gothic novel in the style of Ann Radcliffe or Maturin. It's setting in exotic southern cityscapes helps this (Barcelona, 1900-1955 in this case), as does the language and Spanish titles and names interspersing the English translation. The story of a mysterious character with a burned face, covered by a mask, who is intent to destroy all remaining copies of novels written by a lost author Julian Carax, is very reminisent of the figure of the Gothic villain who haunts the main hero/heroine. Add a wide variety of simpering, colourful characters, very melodramatic language, dilapitated mansions and cellars, the inquisition, grand and doomed love stories, and a huge set of coincidences, and you have a tale comparable to any Gothic tale. The similarity was half the fun for me, in any event.
I'd recommend it for summer reading. Just go with it, enjoy the fun the author clearly has with some of these characters and settings, figure out the mystery and try to not get annoyed with those aforementioned coincidences. Go with it, and you'll enjoy it. It surely is something different from what else is on the shelve.
I've listed some points and thoughts about the book and it's ending under the cut (which isn't all positive.)
* I'd never heard of this book, but my friend brought it on holiday to read, and after finishing my own books, I started hers on the plane back. This past week, I noticed it all around the bookstores, and the Dutch translation is nr. 1 in the bookchart right now. Oh. I wouldn't have thought it so accessible a read, though it is a classic mystery tale. Very suitable for reading on the beach, then forgetting it again.
* Ever notice how the characters in literature are generally writers or teachers/professors. I read The Shadow of the Wind, The History of Love, The Bonesetter's Daughter and Disgrace all in one month. Hell, I've done it myself (write what you know, eh), but it's really starting to get a bit too obvious. "Oh, another main character who is deep and sufferering cause s/he's a poor misunderstood writer."
* After 80 pages, I turned to my friend and said: "if they're so worried about the destruction of Carax' book by this mysterious guy, why doesn't Daniel just copy the book? He can copy it as many times as he likes, hide them all over, and when leatherface starts threatening again, just hand him the hardcopy while the story is saved. He can sell that story for lots of money to Barcelo while still keeping it."
My friend:"... The story isn't really about that."
Me: "Oh."
* After 100 pages I sighed and said: "How many more coincidences is one supposed to take?"
My friend: "Just go with it. Don't think too much."
*After 150 pages I said to my friend: "Julian Carax is the guy with the burned face destroying the books, right?"
My friend: "..."
Me: "Wait. Don't tell me."
So, based on what I consider to be a predictable cliche, esp. since another 'shocking' option seemed to be lacking (short of the culprit being a woman), I guessed the outcome beforehand. Since I wasn't totally sure, it didn't really ruin the story, though I did laugh a bit in derision to find out I was right.
* Thank god Daniel wasn't Carax' son.
* How utterly "Monk" Lewis to make Carax and Penelope brother and sister.
* Fermin was revoltingly fun.
* Fumero was an over-the-top but chilling enemy. A great atmosphere of illogical, unreasonable menace hung around him.
* I find the idea that a girl who has sex for the first (or second) time and immediately becomes pregnant a bit convenient, esp. since it was predictable in the "history repeating itself" theme.
* I hated that the author blabbed about how Daniel would die in a week's time 150 pages before the end. 1. I don't want to know the ending before reading the ending. 2. I know that because the author mentions it that there's probably a twist. 3. I figure that if someone dies but doesn't, that either they die metaphorically or they'll be reanimated in the hospital or somesuch (had Daniel really died, I would have hated that too, though).
* I hated Tomas Aguilar and his violent fists of retribution.
* I disliked how the author degraded Clara Barcelo in the penultimate page or so. What, because she had sex when she was twenty instead of waiting on a fourteen year old boy who will love someone else anyway she may never be happy again and becomes bitter and alone. How gracious.
* I really, really could have done without the last pages. I don't like how authors map out their characters' entire lives past the story that is told. I like to leave some of their future up to the imagination, so they carry on living. Instead, we hear in a very brief summary all of the happy/unhappy mundane living they do without much emotion to it. It jars and takes away from the previous tale. Let them start after the adventure afresh. I know life isn't roses, I don't need to know about the average struggles they go through in bird's flight. I like them to move on from where we leave off, which is the story's conclusion, like I will.This way, I remember them as they were, and am free to imagine their future as I chose, instead of the author clutching them into his claws screaching "mine! mine!". I would have been happier with the sappy wedding ending.
I worry about Rowling's "last chapter" which will probably list the future of every mentionable character in her books. It will read, summarised: "And they all got married and had lots of babies and lived oh so happily ever after." Rather, just end the story with Harry freed from his destiny and the future bright before him (with Ginny if must), and leave it at that. This way, we can all fill in our own future as we would like to see it for our favourite characters. I hate closing the book at the end, but I especially hate having to close the story because the author wants to map out the entire possible future of everything to do with it so no one, not even one's imagination, can ever touch it again. I like a good conlusion ("tomorrow is another day" is hard to swallow when the tangle isn't resolved), but I hate a brick wall at the end.
First, I enjoyed it. It reads as a modern day version (though not too modern) of a classic Gothic novel in the style of Ann Radcliffe or Maturin. It's setting in exotic southern cityscapes helps this (Barcelona, 1900-1955 in this case), as does the language and Spanish titles and names interspersing the English translation. The story of a mysterious character with a burned face, covered by a mask, who is intent to destroy all remaining copies of novels written by a lost author Julian Carax, is very reminisent of the figure of the Gothic villain who haunts the main hero/heroine. Add a wide variety of simpering, colourful characters, very melodramatic language, dilapitated mansions and cellars, the inquisition, grand and doomed love stories, and a huge set of coincidences, and you have a tale comparable to any Gothic tale. The similarity was half the fun for me, in any event.
I'd recommend it for summer reading. Just go with it, enjoy the fun the author clearly has with some of these characters and settings, figure out the mystery and try to not get annoyed with those aforementioned coincidences. Go with it, and you'll enjoy it. It surely is something different from what else is on the shelve.
I've listed some points and thoughts about the book and it's ending under the cut (which isn't all positive.)
* I'd never heard of this book, but my friend brought it on holiday to read, and after finishing my own books, I started hers on the plane back. This past week, I noticed it all around the bookstores, and the Dutch translation is nr. 1 in the bookchart right now. Oh. I wouldn't have thought it so accessible a read, though it is a classic mystery tale. Very suitable for reading on the beach, then forgetting it again.
* Ever notice how the characters in literature are generally writers or teachers/professors. I read The Shadow of the Wind, The History of Love, The Bonesetter's Daughter and Disgrace all in one month. Hell, I've done it myself (write what you know, eh), but it's really starting to get a bit too obvious. "Oh, another main character who is deep and sufferering cause s/he's a poor misunderstood writer."
* After 80 pages, I turned to my friend and said: "if they're so worried about the destruction of Carax' book by this mysterious guy, why doesn't Daniel just copy the book? He can copy it as many times as he likes, hide them all over, and when leatherface starts threatening again, just hand him the hardcopy while the story is saved. He can sell that story for lots of money to Barcelo while still keeping it."
My friend:"... The story isn't really about that."
Me: "Oh."
* After 100 pages I sighed and said: "How many more coincidences is one supposed to take?"
My friend: "Just go with it. Don't think too much."
*After 150 pages I said to my friend: "Julian Carax is the guy with the burned face destroying the books, right?"
My friend: "..."
Me: "Wait. Don't tell me."
So, based on what I consider to be a predictable cliche, esp. since another 'shocking' option seemed to be lacking (short of the culprit being a woman), I guessed the outcome beforehand. Since I wasn't totally sure, it didn't really ruin the story, though I did laugh a bit in derision to find out I was right.
* Thank god Daniel wasn't Carax' son.
* How utterly "Monk" Lewis to make Carax and Penelope brother and sister.
* Fermin was revoltingly fun.
* Fumero was an over-the-top but chilling enemy. A great atmosphere of illogical, unreasonable menace hung around him.
* I find the idea that a girl who has sex for the first (or second) time and immediately becomes pregnant a bit convenient, esp. since it was predictable in the "history repeating itself" theme.
* I hated that the author blabbed about how Daniel would die in a week's time 150 pages before the end. 1. I don't want to know the ending before reading the ending. 2. I know that because the author mentions it that there's probably a twist. 3. I figure that if someone dies but doesn't, that either they die metaphorically or they'll be reanimated in the hospital or somesuch (had Daniel really died, I would have hated that too, though).
* I hated Tomas Aguilar and his violent fists of retribution.
* I disliked how the author degraded Clara Barcelo in the penultimate page or so. What, because she had sex when she was twenty instead of waiting on a fourteen year old boy who will love someone else anyway she may never be happy again and becomes bitter and alone. How gracious.
* I really, really could have done without the last pages. I don't like how authors map out their characters' entire lives past the story that is told. I like to leave some of their future up to the imagination, so they carry on living. Instead, we hear in a very brief summary all of the happy/unhappy mundane living they do without much emotion to it. It jars and takes away from the previous tale. Let them start after the adventure afresh. I know life isn't roses, I don't need to know about the average struggles they go through in bird's flight. I like them to move on from where we leave off, which is the story's conclusion, like I will.This way, I remember them as they were, and am free to imagine their future as I chose, instead of the author clutching them into his claws screaching "mine! mine!". I would have been happier with the sappy wedding ending.
I worry about Rowling's "last chapter" which will probably list the future of every mentionable character in her books. It will read, summarised: "And they all got married and had lots of babies and lived oh so happily ever after." Rather, just end the story with Harry freed from his destiny and the future bright before him (with Ginny if must), and leave it at that. This way, we can all fill in our own future as we would like to see it for our favourite characters. I hate closing the book at the end, but I especially hate having to close the story because the author wants to map out the entire possible future of everything to do with it so no one, not even one's imagination, can ever touch it again. I like a good conlusion ("tomorrow is another day" is hard to swallow when the tangle isn't resolved), but I hate a brick wall at the end.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 03:27 pm (UTC)I tried to avoid the cut part spoilers but it was impossible not to see with the corner of my eye the reference to "The Monk". LOL
I finished reading it two days ago and I was like WOW! Really, it's so extraordinarily funny that I will make a full entry on it this week. :)
And I'll start reading gothic novels this very week. I am hooked.
It's nice to see the genre revived these days, as I asume the book you recomend is written recently.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 04:54 pm (UTC)Shadow of the Wind was published in *looks at colofon* 2001 in Spanish, and 2004 in the English translation.
The Monk is awesome! It's so gruesomely, dramatically, depravidly exaggerated. It is fun! I wrote an essay on the blurring of gender boundaries between Ambrosio and Matilda a few years back (peeling through the lines made it even better). Which turned out to be the onset to my thesis. I love this book just for that.
It really is different from other Gothic novels though, which, though still pretty ludicrous/intense in some cases, are not as graphic or ludicrous as The Monk. What's on your reading list? (sorry, I really like this topic)
no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 05:07 pm (UTC)No way, you wrote a thesis on the Monk? Oh my! That is fantastic! It's one true original book. I saw an essay online about concealed homosexuality in the book, I wonder if...
My reading list? Oh, I don't know yet. I discovered the genre last week only! You can imagine my emotion. What do you suggest? I took the Monk just out of a whim, but as it turns out it seems to be the full package! I guess I'd be bored with most of them now. I'd take your suggestions of course. :)
I plan to compare it to 1984. Surprisingly I find some stuff in common.
LOL Selene, look we area going gothic at the HF thread, you're invited to the Gothic Lime Squad: http://www.harmonyforever.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1829&pid=1855157&st=75&#
no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 08:57 pm (UTC)Okay, but if you might read the book, don't read the other spoilers! This one is not the big reveal.
No way, you wrote a thesis on the Monk? Oh my! That is fantastic! It's one true original book. I saw an essay online about concealed homosexuality in the book, I wonder if...
Was it this essay (http://www.erudit.org/revue/ron/1997/v/n8/005766ar.html)? Or perhaps similar. I didn't write my thesis on The Monk, but it was during writing the essay on it that I decided I wanted to know and read more about this theme. I wrote my thesis on tree other Gothic novels, and it was called (here it comes) "The Ambiguously Gay Gothic: homosexual subtext in three paranoid Gothic texts." How's that? There has been much written about this rise of the homosexual in literature in relation to Gothic. It was the first genre which tried to shock and delve into the (sexual) "depravity" of man. It was a genre that could explore.
Comparing it to 1984 should be interesting. What are the common threads that you see?
As for suggestions... that is hard. I like the old classics like Frankenstein and Dracula, and Ann Radcliffe's the Italian is similar (Lewis wrote his book in imitation of her style, wanting to prove he could take that genre and upgrade it, though he is much more outrageous than she is. She then turned this around and wrote The Italian to write Lewis' tale properly, showing she could do better :)). Also, try The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. It's a classic Gothic tale and employs Wilde's witty language. Edgar Allen Poe is always good. I love Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer probably the most for it's many layers, but it is heavy going. James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner is in keeping to The Monk, probably most of those I mentioned. Oh, and if you read some gothic, then read Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (if you like Austen). She actually satirises the genre quite funnily.
/rambling.
I'll head over to Harmony (will have to read through the thread though). I was wondering what those lime avatars meant that kept popping up...