Inbetween Book: The Shadow of the Wind

Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind is described in the NYT Book Review as "Gabriel Garcia Matquez meets Umberto Eco's meets Jorge Luis Borges". That is high praise -- those authors set pretty high water marks. But to my mind, The Shadow of the Wind, while enjoyable, does not belong to that class of work. A comparison to Dickens is truer especially considering the eccentric characters, background of civil war and Zafon's vivid descriptions of character and setting. Especially nice is his treatment of the narrow streets and bookstores in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona.

Zafon gives us a look at fascist Spain through the naive eyes of a teenage boy named Daniel and through the stories of other characters who have been on the receiving end of the fascist tyranny in Spain.

It's a book of suspense, dense and mysterious. There are numerous plot twists and two intersecting parallel stories. One story, shrouded in mystery, takes us on a journey through Spain's political landscape of the 40s and 50s as we learn of a brilliant, missing author, Julian Carax, whose books are being systematically destroyed. The other is Daniel's story detailing his coming-of-age, his discovery of the author, Carax, and Daniel's attempts to unravel the details surrounding Carax's disappearance. 

Young Daniel is obsessed and entangled by things that are out of his league. He falls for a woman 10 years his senior and is shattered when he discovers her with a lover. Upon leaving, he shares a bottle of wine with a loquacious, half-crazy homeless man, Fermin, who just happens to be a former secret service man under the old regime. They become fast friends when Fermin decides to help solve the puzzle of Julian Carax. The combination of the naive teen and the bungling, clown-like Fermin is both very funny and troubling as they inadvertently save and destroy lives while trying to satisfy their own curiosity. 

It's an ambitious tale but Zafon makes it work. In the last sections he neatly ties up the loose ends, leaving the reader free to mull over the book's themes.

The first third of The Shadow of the Wind is stunning with vivid descriptions of Gothic Barcelona and a trip to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The middle third of the book is less enjoyable -- a bit of a slog even -- as the story focuses on teenage angst. Once through that, the plot moves faster with plot surprises galore. 

There are a number of interesting themes in the parallel stories and in the characters, and watching the themes gel through the plot twists is fun. The book could have used a bit more editing in that there are a number of repeated ideas and even a few repeated phrases. But it's a good book. I recommend it to those who like who like slow unfolding stories with lots of suspense. 486 pages.

The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

It's been only five weeks since I finished Eugenides book, Middlesex, and already I am longing for more of his work. There is something quite familiar about his books - not surprising really since they take place in my hometown, Detroit. But the style feels very comfortable, as if I had heard Eugenides reading his short stories in my high school English class and now get a chance to read the expanded version.

How does one write a book about 5 sisters who commit suicide without making it morose or ugly. If you are Eugenides, you tell it from the viewpoint of the neighborhood boys who worship those girls from afar. It is easy to picture these sweet boys, each in love with one or more of the pretty sisters who live across the street. Each boy happy to be invited to the only party those girls ever throw and devastated to see the youngest drop to her death at  age 13, impaling herself on the metal fence in the backyard.

With one dead, those boys still have four girls to admire and to worry about. And worry they do. The girls are not let out of the house except to go to school. The boys wonder: How are they holding up after the suicide? Are they happy? How do they entertain themselves at home day after day?

When the school's heart-throb appeals to the parents to let the sisters go to the prom, their mother makes them shapeless, high-necked dresses. The sweet boys note that the girls look great anyway and appear to have a good time. But the outing is spoiled. The youngest sister gets drunk, comes home two hours after curfew resulting in the parents pulling them out of school, leaving the sweet boys to while away the hours over games of pool and baseball thinking about how to get the sisters from their captivity. We share the boys' curiosity as they look at the girls with noses pressed to the glass, or fondle a treasured object (a diary, a bra, high-top sneakers) retrieved from the family's trash and, years later, mull over interviews with parents and neighbors.

The boys never determine exactly why the girls commit suicide, but with the trail of breadcrumbs Eugenides leaves us, we can make a very good guess. Eugenides succeeds wonderfully in bringing alive a book on death. It's a sweet, dark book that is not easily forgotten.

Bel Canto

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.

Background: The story is based on the Lima Crisis of 1996 in which high profile businessmen and government leaders were held captive for six months. Bel Canto adds in the element of opera with the addition of a soprano added to the list of hostages.

Non-Spoiler Summary: In an attempt to attract new industry, a small South American country gives a birthday party for the Japanese CEO of the world's largest electronics company and invites his favorite opera singer - the world's greatest soprano to sing for him. 192 high profile guests arrive at the vice-presidential mansion for dinner and music. The country's president skips the event claiming he needs to work. In fact, he refuses to go because the party is on a Tuesday - the same day that his favorite soap opera is televised. (The whole country stops for this particular soap). The terrorists invade the party planning to kidnap the president and take him to the jungle while they negotiate their demands. But they are completely at a loss when they discover that he is not present. Without a plan B, they decide to stay-put with the guests and use them as hostages.Being rational (as opposed to violent) terrorists, they do not kill their hostages and a stalemate ensues. The story plays out over several months. Hostages and terrorists live in peace and even become friends. But the situation cannot last, and the explosive ending (revealed early on) changes everyone's life forever.

Reading Experience: Fascinating book. It's a well told, gripping story. This felt like a woman's rendition of a hostage crisis, making it more accessible to me. But I'm not sure that the typical male reader (my husband, for example!) would find it as entertaining. 316 pages.