Upon reading the title of this post, you may well have thought to yourself: "What on earth is this girl doing?". Admittedly, I ask myself the same question quite frequently - and this post is exactly one of those times. By my own self-admission, I am no book blogger because quite frankly, I neither read frequently enough nor do I think that I'm all that competent at reviewing works of literature. Nonetheless, I've made it my mission to read more books in French and Spanish and wanted to share this journey with you to give a language learner's take on all of these works - and who knows, maybe I'll encourage you to pick them up too? To kick-start this series, I thought there would be no better novel than Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind - the book that has propelled Zafón to become Spain's best-selling author following Cervantes. I hope you enjoy this post and, as always, feel free to leave a comment at the end!
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BRIEF SYNOPSIS
The Shadow of the Wind, predominantly set in Barcelona in the years following the brutal Civil War, begins with the then ten-year-old Daniel Sempere being taken to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books by his father. It is here that he must choose one book, and one book only, to adopt and look after for the rest of his life - and he just so happens to pick Julián Carax's "The Shadow of the Window". Daniel, who grew up surrounded by literature in an apartment above his father's bookshop, reads this book and is completely enthralled by it - so much so that he wants to read the author's other works. There is, however, one problem: there seemingly aren't any other works. What Daniel later finds out, though, is that there are indeed other works by Carax, but a strange figure who goes by the name of Laín Coubert (a fictitious, devil-like character in Carax's "The Shadow of the Window") has been seeking them out for decades and destroying them all, along with all trace of the author. This takes Daniel, who is more curious than ever, on a dangerous yet fascinating journey to discover who the author really is and why somebody is burning his every trace to dust. Throughout this journey, there are various sub-plots - whether it be the budding romance between Daniel and Bea or struggles encountered by Fermín (the beggar the family choose to take into their home) - which allow you to become engrossed in the plot and make you feel as if you are there with Daniel in 1950s Spain.
MY THOUGHTS
Despite a few gripes that I have with this novel, it has still most certainly won a spot on my all-time favourites list; if the synopsis sounded like something you'd be interested in, I would certainly recommend picking it up and venturing on the wild journey yourself!
Being a languages student who read both the Spanish version and its English counterpart simultaneously, I wanted to start off first of all by talking about its level of difficulty. I must say, one of the things that really stands out about this text is how beautifully it is written; it is as if you're not just following Daniel's journey as he comes to discover the truth about this favourite author, but also a journey of Barcelona - one which, at times, seems to be crumbling at the seams and very different to the tourist hotspot we see today. That being said, it is these very descriptions that, at times, did make it a challenging read in the original version (for reference, I am currently a Year 13 A-Level student who should be around the B1-B2 mark) - perhaps not helped by the complex nature of both the plot and the structure, a "book within a book" with multiple narratives. Although Lucia Graves' English translation is very smooth and maintains the flow of the language seen in the original edition, it is only natural that some details or connotations are "lost in translation". In fact, if that is a topic that interests you, there's plenty of examples in this book - and it's really all rather fascinating. For me, one which was particularly striking was "Desgranaban los primeros días del verano de 1945", translated as "It was the early summer of 1945." Upon reading this line in the original version, the verb 'desgranar' appeared to be unfamiliar and so I looked it up - only to find that it meant 'to thresh'. Needless to say, given the tedious connotations the verb has of separating a seed from a harvested plant, all metaphorical significance has been lost here. Though I suppose you do have to beg the question as to how important such details are - arguably, not very much.
Rambles about translation aside, I think it would be a good point in time to get into one of my critiques of the novel. The opening, in my eyes, was genius (you can read it here) but beyond that point, the plot began to lose traction until about a third of the way in. I must admit, there even came a point where I heavily considered whether it would be worth ploughing through 400 more pages of Spanish unless things began to pick up - although, thankfully, it didn't take much longer for this to happen, and when things did pick up, they well and truly picked up. I must admit, the ending left me with tears in my eyes and there's nothing I enjoyed more than seeing all of the puzzle pieces finally come together, as tragic as they may be.
While we're on the subject of puzzle pieces, I think it's only right to talk about the structure and the many subplots of this book. Some have critiqued the multiple-person narrative - but I, for one, absolutely loved it. I can understand arguments for Daniel's narrative being problematic because of the way he, at times, seems to be too advanced for his age - but what we have to keep in mind is that that territory comes with an adult reliving and telling an event from their past. For me, the multiple-person narrative also greatly added to the tragedy of it all because you can truly gage the effects of Daniel's quest for everybody involved, and not just the boy. Similarly, I must admit that I first found the way in which the book itself is structured into several chronicles to be a bit confusing - though looking back, it bodes brilliantly with the notion of Daniel trying to navigate his way through an almost-impossible labyrinth. What I also enjoyed is the fact that this book encompasses so many genres - including mystery, tragedy, romance and history. Contrary to what others have said, I believe these elements have been gelled together expertly and that they truly come to complement one another in the storyline. Truth be told, I was expecting a little more history, or more overt history if you will, but I think we can still gage a lot about the time period from the interactions of the characters. What caught my eye in particular is the way in which 40s and 50s sexism in Francoist Spain was portrayed. As a matter of not giving spoilers away, I'll leave my example to a little off-side comment: "Mi padre opina que las ciencias no son para el sexo débil" ("My father thinks science is not for the weaker sex").
Of course, there were moments that proved to be a little too good to be true or rather cliché - but that's only to be expected of a book which encompasses genres such as mystery, and these moments are needed for the very essence of the novel to work. For instance, the book would have turned out very differently if ten-year old Daniel did a little more than question his father asking him to get dressed at five in the morning - yes, having a little moan or tantrum would have been more realistic, but realism wouldn't have made this book half of what it is. The same can be said for Bea and Daniel's budding romance, which at first seemed like a rather odd and unlikely match. Speaking of realism, I must say that I highly enjoyed the elements of magic realism in the work, namely embodied in the figure of Laín Coubert and the backdrop of Barcelona that is always present, but never imposes on, the plot. While we're also somewhat on the topic, I must say that Zafón's characterisation is excellent in this book. Perhaps it's because I don't read as much as I would like to, but I definitely struggle to visualise things in my head - yet this novel proved to be no challenge in the field and I found myself connecting with the characters in a matter of no time, particularly Daniel (although perhaps I'm a sucker for a Bildungsroman).
Again, despite its several flaws, this book was an excellent read and no matter whether you opt for the Spanish or the English version, I would highly recommend it!
Being a languages student who read both the Spanish version and its English counterpart simultaneously, I wanted to start off first of all by talking about its level of difficulty. I must say, one of the things that really stands out about this text is how beautifully it is written; it is as if you're not just following Daniel's journey as he comes to discover the truth about this favourite author, but also a journey of Barcelona - one which, at times, seems to be crumbling at the seams and very different to the tourist hotspot we see today. That being said, it is these very descriptions that, at times, did make it a challenging read in the original version (for reference, I am currently a Year 13 A-Level student who should be around the B1-B2 mark) - perhaps not helped by the complex nature of both the plot and the structure, a "book within a book" with multiple narratives. Although Lucia Graves' English translation is very smooth and maintains the flow of the language seen in the original edition, it is only natural that some details or connotations are "lost in translation". In fact, if that is a topic that interests you, there's plenty of examples in this book - and it's really all rather fascinating. For me, one which was particularly striking was "Desgranaban los primeros días del verano de 1945", translated as "It was the early summer of 1945." Upon reading this line in the original version, the verb 'desgranar' appeared to be unfamiliar and so I looked it up - only to find that it meant 'to thresh'. Needless to say, given the tedious connotations the verb has of separating a seed from a harvested plant, all metaphorical significance has been lost here. Though I suppose you do have to beg the question as to how important such details are - arguably, not very much.
Rambles about translation aside, I think it would be a good point in time to get into one of my critiques of the novel. The opening, in my eyes, was genius (you can read it here) but beyond that point, the plot began to lose traction until about a third of the way in. I must admit, there even came a point where I heavily considered whether it would be worth ploughing through 400 more pages of Spanish unless things began to pick up - although, thankfully, it didn't take much longer for this to happen, and when things did pick up, they well and truly picked up. I must admit, the ending left me with tears in my eyes and there's nothing I enjoyed more than seeing all of the puzzle pieces finally come together, as tragic as they may be.
While we're on the subject of puzzle pieces, I think it's only right to talk about the structure and the many subplots of this book. Some have critiqued the multiple-person narrative - but I, for one, absolutely loved it. I can understand arguments for Daniel's narrative being problematic because of the way he, at times, seems to be too advanced for his age - but what we have to keep in mind is that that territory comes with an adult reliving and telling an event from their past. For me, the multiple-person narrative also greatly added to the tragedy of it all because you can truly gage the effects of Daniel's quest for everybody involved, and not just the boy. Similarly, I must admit that I first found the way in which the book itself is structured into several chronicles to be a bit confusing - though looking back, it bodes brilliantly with the notion of Daniel trying to navigate his way through an almost-impossible labyrinth. What I also enjoyed is the fact that this book encompasses so many genres - including mystery, tragedy, romance and history. Contrary to what others have said, I believe these elements have been gelled together expertly and that they truly come to complement one another in the storyline. Truth be told, I was expecting a little more history, or more overt history if you will, but I think we can still gage a lot about the time period from the interactions of the characters. What caught my eye in particular is the way in which 40s and 50s sexism in Francoist Spain was portrayed. As a matter of not giving spoilers away, I'll leave my example to a little off-side comment: "Mi padre opina que las ciencias no son para el sexo débil" ("My father thinks science is not for the weaker sex").
Of course, there were moments that proved to be a little too good to be true or rather cliché - but that's only to be expected of a book which encompasses genres such as mystery, and these moments are needed for the very essence of the novel to work. For instance, the book would have turned out very differently if ten-year old Daniel did a little more than question his father asking him to get dressed at five in the morning - yes, having a little moan or tantrum would have been more realistic, but realism wouldn't have made this book half of what it is. The same can be said for Bea and Daniel's budding romance, which at first seemed like a rather odd and unlikely match. Speaking of realism, I must say that I highly enjoyed the elements of magic realism in the work, namely embodied in the figure of Laín Coubert and the backdrop of Barcelona that is always present, but never imposes on, the plot. While we're also somewhat on the topic, I must say that Zafón's characterisation is excellent in this book. Perhaps it's because I don't read as much as I would like to, but I definitely struggle to visualise things in my head - yet this novel proved to be no challenge in the field and I found myself connecting with the characters in a matter of no time, particularly Daniel (although perhaps I'm a sucker for a Bildungsroman).
Again, despite its several flaws, this book was an excellent read and no matter whether you opt for the Spanish or the English version, I would highly recommend it!
