The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1) in 2017 Reading Challenge

Jun 03, 2015 Ned Hanlon rated it did not like it

That's it - I'm done. It's hard to get 324 pages into a book and then quit but I just can't do it anymore. This is just not a a good book but it's a little hard to figure out why. The story isn't bad: maybe a bit derivative but what isn't? The book is just so lazy. The author is doing nothing but advancing his mediocre plot. Despite the fact that the book occurs over a long period of time (at least 9 years by the time I had to put it away) there is no character development at all. I'm not entire That's it - I'm done. It's hard to get 324 pages into a book and then quit but I just can't do it anymore. This is just not a a good book but it's a little hard to figure out why. The story isn't bad: maybe a bit derivative but what isn't? The book is just so lazy. The author is doing nothing but advancing his mediocre plot. Despite the fact that the book occurs over a long period of time (at least 9 years by the time I had to put it away) there is no character development at all. I'm not entirely sure the author has ever met a 10 year old because his protagonist does not sound like any small child I have ever met (he does, however, sound exactly the same as he does when he is 19). But this is not particualrly surprising because not one of the characters in the novel has a unique voice. The only way Zafón seems to be able to differentiate them is by giving a few of them absurdly flowery dialogue. This is fine if it is an affectation of one of your characters... but for three??? It also lead to probably my least favorite (and borderline offensive) narration in the story when one of the characters chose to describe a rape that happened to a friend in exquisite detail and orational flourish. It was embarrassing (both for the character and the author) and made me dislike both (though that was not, I believe, it's intention).

I could go on a lot longer (I have been writing and re-writing this reviem in my head since about page 4) but I'm going to try not to. The writing style is mediocre, filled with mixed metaphors and ridiculous similes. Zafon is terrible at writing about sex. Some authors just have a way with it; Murakami, can make anything erotic with such amazing ease. Zafón seems to have the opposite power; he renders the actual act of sex completely un-erotic.

One word on a review the publisher has chosen to print about this book on the back cover from The New York Times Book Review: "Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets Umberto Eco meets Jorge Luis Borges for a sprawling magic show." Really?!? Did the reviewer read the book at all or did he just look at the title page, see it was written by a man with a latin sounding name, and then compare him to three other latin authors? Pure authorial racial profiling! It did, however, get me thinking about what I would compare this book to. My first answer was one of those modern sprawling historical novels like The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay or Carter Beats the Devil. But those books are so detail oriented and researched and this one is... well... not. I think its best analogy is a Harry Potter book but remove the characterization, and joy of the Rowling and add a little bit of profanity, violence and poorly written sex scenes.

This book commits the cardinal sin of fiction: I read a fair amount. I could be learning German, studying scores for an upcoming opera or at the gym working out but I choose to read because I enjoy it and, no matter how innocuous the book, there is importance in that. But I never felt that with The Shadow if the Wind; I always felt like I should be doing something else: I am in Austria so it wouldn't hurt to improve my German, I have an opera coming up in a month and a half and I really have to get started on that, and I have not been working out very consistently this summer. This book, then, is not a work of art, but a waste of time.

p.s. I know this review is over the top... I just couldn't help it! ...more

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