A Confusingly Intricate Story: A Review of "The Shadow of the Wind"

I finished the first book in my stack of summer reading.  Or, perhaps I should say, I FINALLY finished the book that happened to be on the top of my stack for the summer, but which I had really been reading since early January - a 480 page block of tangled plot lines and 15+ primary characters known as The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

First, some background on how I got this book.  I acquired this book through a coworker who, upon learning that I had recently finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, suggested that I borrow it on the basis that I must like "books about books."  And sure, I do like books about books.  The problem though, and the reason that I immediately felt a surge of "uh oh" sweep over me, is that I take a LONG time to read books - especially books that I didn't necessarily choose to read.  People...I borrowed this book in October.  OCTOBER.  It is now June.  That is how long it takes me to read books that people lend me.  I tried to warn my coworker, but she insisted that I take it.  So I took it.

Now, some background on the general plot.  The Shadow of the Wind is set in Barcelona in the 1930s/40s, and opens when a young boy named Daniel is taken by his father to a place called "The Cemetery of Forgotten Books" by his father, a bookseller.  There, Daniel finds a book called "The Shadow of the Wind," written by a man named Julian Carax, and takes it home with him.  He loves the book, and decides to find out more about its author.  Soon enough, Daniel encounters a mysterious shadowy figure with a completely scarred face who warns him not to pursue Julian Carax's history, lest horrible things befall him.  Given this obviously cheery encounter, Daniel decides to keep up his search for information about Carax, taking up with a local homeless man and unwisely pursuing a romantic relationship with the betrothed sister of his best friend.  

From there the great (and greatly complex) story of Julian Carax begins to unfold in an A-plot/B-plot style, with the A-plot set in the present with Daniel and the B-plot set in the past with Carax and company.  I found this to be a bit confusing.  The publisher attempts to distinguish between the now-story and the then-story by italicizing entire chapters of the B-plot, which just gave me a headache.  It didn't really help that the names are super-confusing for someone who doesn't speak Spanish.  You've got your Fermin's and your Francisco Fumero's and your Fernando's, your Montfort's and your Miquel Moliner's, and your Don-Everybody's, and they all start to run together if you're not paying close attention.  It is a good story at it's core, full of twists and turns and shocking plot developments, but it sometimes felt like two disjointed stories squished into one book.  Again, some of this might be because I took six months to read the book...but it just didn't grab my attention well.  It certainly didn't help that I figured out who the mysterious masked figure was about two-thirds of the way through the book, spoiling that whole climactic reveal.  The most surprising plot development ended up involving unintentional incest, which is a plot twist that I unequivocally detest in any format (I mean, come on, no one really wants to think about that.)

Apparently this book spent over two years on Spain's best-seller list, and it is an impressive story with it's well-planned intricacies.  Unfortunately for Mr. Zafon and his many, many characters...I didn't love it.

I didn't hate it.

But I didn't love it.

Maybe I would have liked it more if I didn't take so many breaks while reading it (week-long, month-long breaks at that).  Between the happening-in-the-past plot lines and the happening-in-the-present plot lines, and the many lengthily Spanish-named characters that seemed like minor characters but were all important to the story, I just got confused.  But once I sat down with a deliberate goal to "just finish the darn book already", I actually found myself caught up in the story and rapidly turning the pages to see what happened next.

This is one of those books that I like a lot better in retrospect than I liked it while I was reading it.  So I don't know, have a go at it if you want.  I've tried not to include too many spoiler-details in my review.  My advice would be to really read it if you're going to read it.  This is definitely not a book to read lazily, and it shouldn't be read lazily.  If you can keep at it diligently from the beginning, the complex plot will probably be a blessing rather than a burden.  

And even if it is slow at times, any book that starts out with a place called "The Cemetery of Forgotten Books" is bound to be an intriguing read for a book lover, right?