gold standard predetermined to rule historiographic metafiction
Characters, world, and deeper meaning combined in astonishing density and quality
Some rare books have a certain something, the perfect combination of many good qualities that are rarely found in one novel and it somehow reminds me of John Irving and Dan Simmons too.
Its all so perfectly fitting together, so clever, deep, witty, add some more positive adjectives if you wish, there are just so many worth mentioning,
Big history
By using different periods of Spanish history, the author draws a living Ken Follett style history picture that especially points the finger at how all the periods are interconnected and what caused which problem.
One of the essential tools for this is the
Mysterious book
This single plot device enables Zafon to make credible main story arcs and construct an amazing panorama of Spanish culture.
Of course, he doesnt just point the finger at the evil protagonist, but at the ideologies that made them monsters, which has certainly led to the one or other conservative outcry when it was published and became an international megaseller as an extra bonus.
It could also be that it was the authors' intent to push the sales by especially aiming at this effect,
Inception style story within a story
Maybe one of the best uses of this trope Ive ever seen, linked with family history, While the book is the main physical red line, the backflip retrospective time loop effect makes the character development more suspenseful and always opens questions about the many different options the story could push forward, leaving the reader no time to rest together with the great characters.
The perfect dose of sadness
There is absolutely no overkill of emotions or tragedy, it always stays in the acceptable dose range and, very probably, is credible too.
See, Ive some kind of problems with objectively assessing how good emotional descriptions are, because I tend to rate plot and ideas over characters in most of my reading and am dead and cold inside and novels like that are exceptions in my schedule to camouflage my totally über cool weirdness and try to understand human relationships and emotions.
But with incompetent subjectivity, I deem it sweeping without escalating towards soap opera for just any moment,
Fascistic dictatorship until
This historic anomaly, with the extra bonus of hardcore conservatism and Catholicism, is what makes Spain a European exception, A socioeconomic and epigenetic subject that is certainly in full focus of many humanities, as it shows the longtime effects of such terrible management styles in all fields of society.
For Spanish readers, it adds the reading bonus of nonfiction facts and a move towards reappraisal and a culture of remembrance that uses objective measures just as in all other countries haunted by fascism.
Its extremely disturbing to think about the fact that Francos' terror continued fordecades after all other European dictatorships had been crushed in WW,
The love for and magic of books
Many philosophical and metaphysical options to talk about imagination, the power of fantasy, or just living in fictional universes, but no matter what one picks, its a declaration of love for the best hobby to rule them all.
And, of course, accelerate the, hopefully not backlashy and incestuously degenerating, course of history by spreading wisdom, enlightenment, and progressive ideas,
Easy to enter for all groups of readers
One of these novels everyone, no matter what genre preferences, more in character or plot focused works, should read, because the ingenuity of unique pieces like that lies in taking anything that already worked well in creative writing and endless amounts of tropes, postmodern deconstructed stereotypes, and mechanisms to assemble them to such an unforgettable reading fun.
The role of women in dark times
With full focus on how the sick, conservative, and sheer evil ideologies torture women, Zafon creates intense and sad pictures of the ultimate consequences of alpha male dominance.
War and murder are the big picture, but what is often forgotten are the unknown and uncounted numbers of abused and raped women, who were forced to abort their unworthy mongrel babies, because of Christian charity and autocratic governments working together to create real life hellhole prison states.
There is no substitute
I could endlessly talk about what makes it great, but instead, I will encourage everyone to read it, and Irving and Simmons I already mentioned of course too.
In all three cases, I ask myself how long it takes to write such works and how its even possible, although I would agree with Stephen King, who said he is envious because Simmons writes like a God.
And probably all of the three are halfGods, alien human hybrids, or something, I could find no serious scientific literature dealing with this theory, but still deem it an option.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
sitelink org/pmwiki/pmwiki. ph I loved this book so much that I feel like my tears should speak for themselves and I don't even need to review it, At the same time, I want to shout from the rooftops about how good this book is, So here I am.
This book is the perfect mix of dark brooding mystery with a wistful romance and a melancholy, bookish main character, There's so many elements that are effortlessly held afloat by the gorgeous, melodic, and yet digestible writing, I tabbed the everloving sunshine out of this book because there's so many astute and haunting lines Zafón is truly a talented writer who I certainly see myself reading more from.
My only issue throughout the book was the way the mystery unfolded, but it was more of a user error because I took so long to read this book that between sittings, I would forget all the details about which character is who.
Also, the perspective jumping from character to character could be a bit startling, but by the end of this book when I spent the lastpages sobbing and hugging my cat as I read on, I couldn't give a single damn about this minor storytelling blip.
Very few books earn the title of a masterpiece from me, but this is one of them, It takes you on a complete journey with characters so lifelike and human, eccentric and lovely, twisted and vile, I foresee this being a book that, when I pass it in a book shop, I will stroke its spine lovingly and remember the hours I spent cuddled with it, lost in its alternating gloomy and hopeful moods.
Terminé el libro pero no les voy a decir cuántas estrellas le puse todavía jejejeje, ./stars
An astonishingly engaging story within a story type of novel the passion for books and reading introduced in the first chapter was just an appetizer before all the interconnecting twists and turns.
Ive been having a lot of good lucks lately in reading books outside of epic fantasymy favorite subgenre, The Shadow of the Wind is a novel that Ive heard so many positive things about for several years it is one of those books thats often recommended by readers, regardless of their main preferences subgenre of reading.
And now that Ive read it, I can understand why it received all the critical acclaims, Sheer brilliance in storytelling and writing aside, The Shadow of the Wind is a book about books, a story about a story, and it would be difficult for readerswho obviously love booksof all kind of genre to resist the charm in the narrative.
Im going backward here because The Shadow of the Wind was published first, but if youve read and loved The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E.
Harrow, I think youre going to love this novel as well, These two books have many similarities in themes and their approaches to the passion for books and its mystery comingofage centered plotlines,
“In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner, Every book you see here has been somebodys best friend, ”
The Shadow of the Wind is the first book in The Cemetery of Forgotten Books quartet by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
The story takes place in Barcelona,, and heres the short premise of the novel, On his eleventh birthday, Daniel Sempere wakes up and finds out that he cannot remember the face of his mother anymore, To cheer him up, Daniels father takes him to the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library that holds the books forgotten by the world, just sitting there waiting for the right reader to choose a book that will hold a special meaning to them.
Daniel selects a book titled The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax, and he falls in love with it immensely, then he seeks other books written by Julian only to find out that someone has been destroying every book written by the author.
He may just be holding the last copy of the authors work, and hes trying to solve the mystery behind this bizarre incident,
“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, ”
As I mentioned, The Shadow of the Wind is a story within a story, It tells a comingofage story of Daniel Sempere as he tries to unravel the mystery behind Julian Carax and the disappearances of his novels, Despite this novel has been published for more than a decadealmost two decades in its original languagenow, I somehow was able to approach this book knowing close to nothing I plan to keep it that way for future readers who stumbles upon this review.
Let me, however, say that Im pleasantly surprised by how much I grew to care about the characters in this novel, especially for Daniel and FerminFermin is hands down my favorite character of the book.
Daniels story and the secrets he unravels continuously gripped me, Fermins personality plus his dialogues are so intoxicating, and most of all the friendship these two nurtured is incredibly heartwarming.
“One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it, By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep, ”
I havent been to Barcelona, what I know of it, I see, learn, and heard from other people and other media, However, theres a super atmospheric quality thats so immersive to Zafóns writing when I was reading the book, it feels like I was truly there, Im in a similar situation with my friends, in that I havent read the book in its original language, and because of this, I cant gauge the accuracy of the translations.
But as far as reading the book in English goes, the translation done by Lucia Graves flows absolutely well, There were a few flashback sections where I found the book to be slightly uneven in its pacing, but for the majority of the novel, Zafóns prose and Graves translations were extraordinarily compelling and accessible.
Im serious I lost count on how many passages I highlighted because they were so wellwritten and relatable to me,
“Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day.
”
Picture: The Shadow of the Wind by Vincent Chong
Theres simply no scarcity of insightful and wise remarks within this novel that brims with resonating themes of growing up, love, found family, friendship, and books.
In equal measure, its also filled with revenge, loss, and tragedy, The Shadow of the Wind is an amazing
piece of literature that begins and concluded its story in a richly satisfying way, Do note that although this is the first book of a quartet, the novel worked wonderfully well as a standalone Im actually surprised that there are three more books in the series.
If any one of the sequels is as good as this one, then I know Im in for more unforgettable stories to read,
“I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.
”
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