Bookspot: The Shadow of the Wind

I was warned before I even opened it that it was a no good book, probably from the wrong side of town, but I decided to give it a chance because it was a gift from Marsh, and Marsh is rarely wrong about anything, if you don't count rawlplugs.

I don't know anything about the author and my experience of the Spanish literary tradition runs to The House of Bernarda Alba and no further.  I approached and judged this novel purely on its contents: something I've not been able to do for years.  I'm glad I put aside the warning; as a secret, avid reader of crappy thrillers I know that there is nothing better than enjoying something that you think you ought not to.  So, decide for yourself whether it is an entertaining read or just mere literature: they both sit together on my shelves. 

The Shadow of the Wind is the tale of Daniel, a restless ten year-old, inducted into the 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books' (CFB) by his father, partly to distract him from the grief he feels as his deceased mother begins to fade from his memories.  The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, sounds neat, eh?  A bit Indiana Jones-y, fascinating literary treasures-y, possibly even with a minotaur, eh?  Sadly, we don't find out.  I think that the lost library was the hook at attracted Marsh to pick this out for me, and it was certainly what intrigued me enough to pick it up, but almost as soon as it is introduced, the library is packed up and relocated to the stack of secondary locations.  Shame.  But this always happens to me: I yearn for the story that hasn't been told. 

This disappointment aside: the tale gripped me.  As a card carrying member of the CFB Daniel is allow, nay duty bound, to choose a volume from its dusty shelves and guard it with his very life.  He chooses the Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax, unknown to Daniel but an author who captures the attention of his father's bibliophile friends.  Having read the novel in my preferred, voracious, stay-up-all-night style, Daniel sets off to find out more about Carax and his novels.  He finds only a charred paper-trail: Carax is presumed dead at an early age in mysterious circumstances, and his entire opus has been acquired, then torched by a mysterious inhuman(e) character named Lain Coubert, a moniker for the Devil in Carax's novel.  The plot develops as the story of Carax and Daniel's own fate become intertwined.

Now as I said: I know nothing.  I enjoyed this as a pleasant book-related yarn.  The characters entertained and occasionally engrossed me, and I felt I was guessing what would happen up to the end.  At times the prose was beautiful: the description of Barcelona in the snow was charming and the dark and rather creepy episode in the Aldaya mansion actually scared me (just a little!).  There was the occasional moment of overhype: 'in seven days I would be dead,' but I felt that this just reflected the character of Carax's novelistic style, and the regular references to melodramatic radio plays (cf. the larger than life Fermin).

I didn't mind the way the lives of the characters danced to and fro together, or the fact that they all had back stories, secret, previous, or even fantastic alter-egos.  But, the conclusion felt too neat for my liking, and a little forced; however, I couldn't suggest better: after 500+ pages and multiple twists, any ending should ought to seem too simple.  I should know, I'm waiting for Lost to finish.