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the premise: a group of 20-something girls decide it would be fun to mail their favorite books to each other in an attempt to be well-read...it's like being pen-pals, only passing on a letter that was written by somebody else...
8 comments:
Janelle! Tell me why you loved this book! I bet it was just because of all the hot sex.
haha! I will call you! I got your message but left a phone in Santa Fe and thus Chris has mine at work so am waiting till he returns to call :)
The story just really yanked me in. I still close my eyes and think about it. I do have issues with resolution so to leave a mystery, any mystery, unsolved makes me a bit crazy, you know, no closure.
I just warmed to the characters. Sure, it was melodramatic but I kind of got the sense that Daniel felt his life was also melodramatic-- I kept picturing this quiet kid, living with only a reserved Dad, working at a bookstore his whole life and inventing adventures for himself.
Chris thought the Clara Barcelo thing was too weird but to me it was normal, developmentally speaking. I read a critique that said, the author spent too much time develping the characters and as such could have chopped off a third of the novel and made it far better. Personally, character development is what I love best, and it was so psychological, Fumero and his issues, the parallel btw Julian and Daniel (a little overdone I think)Fermin all those people.. I felt like I knew them and there issues at the end and was glad I wasn't left wondering.
I don;t know if I would classify it as an absolutley incredible novel, but I think I will buy myself a personal copy and be waiting in expectation for the next two in the series!
I just loved how the author talked about books, and what a concept the cemetary of forgotten ones is! It definetly appealed to my romantic side. I absoluetely loved the idea of all the hidden worlds in each book , the idea that they just keep on and by reading you get to become a secret part of them. I liked how the author said it because it's a thought I've had forever, I think its an experience that anyone who loves to read can identify with. It's even a potentailly deangerous function of books (Or TV or whatever) losing yourself in them because you are uninterested in the world or dissatisfied with it. THey can be an escape, sometimes good, sometimes bad.
How exciting that Daniel's fave book started to come alive around him.
I thought the Julian and Penelope sibling thing was quite the twist!! You are left going "ewww! now what do they do?" I think its good that J never finds out. I just kept thinking how stupid of the parent's to punish them like they did. It isn't like they even knew. It was so kids paying for the sins of their parents. I think the author is a bit into the grotesque.
I do love that Daniel finds Bea and they belong to each other and have hot sex! hehe. Actually, the scene that Fermin keeps telling Daniel he'll never forget when he undresses a woman for the first time, I thought was handled beautifully and reminded me of the scene when Mumbi and Gatonyo get it on in the forest for the first time. Both were more spiritual/ emotional/ psychological than physical. I thought the author communicated that connection in a really neat way, a way not reserved for Clara and her music teacher--you feel like you are watching porn at that description--ok an exageration but, I'd rather picture it as suroounded by mists and candles rather than stark reality, although both are true.
At any rate, the biggest reason I finished it in 3 days is there was no good stopping point. Especially about 2/3rds through when one chapter ends "7 days later, I would be dead." I was like, what the heck!!?? I hate it when books kill off their lead person. So, i read even faster and more furiously to discover the real ending and was rewarded, although in retrospect that ploy was a little cheesy!
Anyway, I really did love it and was totaly entertained. And, I'm a sucker for a happy ending.
Well, Janelle...that was quite the literary criticism! My GOSH!
I do think that Daniel is aware of the melodrama, and I do think that the author is intending to write melodrama...sometimes the dialogue (epecially early in the book) really got to me--like, hello, are we writing the script for a soap opera.
Bea and Daniel was certainly a high point for me--and I laughed out loud when it's revealed that they named their child Julian.
Nuria's character made me overall, so sad...because it's just a very grotesque description of how women are so bound to and controlled by their love for a man, whether or not he requites it or whether or not he deserves it.
I agree that the characters were very well defined, and I felt like I knew each of them extremely well, although I felt like most of the plot was a bit over the top.
You say there will be two more in the series? Well. I will probably read them.
Heather's SotW Haiku:
Creepy sex galore.
But this book's about a book.
Fumero is gross.
my haiku:
Man with cigarette
Julian and sis, oh yuck
Daniel and Bea, whee!
Interesting to read your (hmb and janelle's) take on the book. i really enjoyed the book. yes, the story line was a bit over the top, but not everything has to be realisitc--it is the joys of reading.
Many of the characters made me sad at what man can inflict on another man or the inability to move on and live: Julian, Penelope's father, Nuria, Fumero. What a tragedy to have so many lives wasted. Truely a lot of children paying for the sins of their parents. It is amazing how blind most people in our society and time either do not know about or choose to ignore that concept.
I agree with Janelle in the the ploy, "I would be dead in 7 days" was stupid. Honestly, we were already hooked by that point, and it just left me frustrated that the author said that.
Well...a shorter commentary, but I think that is it. I would recommend it.
First, my Haiku:
Barcelona kid
Solves dark author mystery
Twists and turns galore
And now, my commentary:
I was looking forward to this book with a crazy degree of anticipation; after all, I love Spain, I love books, I love a good intrigue... But I have to say I feel a little let down now that I've finished this dark and twisted tome.
I suppose there's a time and a place for melodrama, but after a while, Zafon's relentless pursuit of the dark and dramatic really got to me. Although now that I look back on it and try to draw from the course I took on the History of Spain in the 20 Century, all the drama, violence and confusion does reflect the chaos and brutality in Spain during that era. Surreal that all of that happened while Americans were watching Leave it to Beaver, huh?
I did appreciate the development of the main characters, but there were times I felt like I needed to grab a pen and draw a chart to keep track of how all the more minor characters fit together within the meandering and occasionally convuluted plot, especially as the narrative jumped back and forth between present, past, and future, alternating narrators along the way.
Regarding the dialogue, I echo Heather's soap opera comment. There were several times I found myself thinking, either something was REALLY lost in translation here, or the author actually wrote the dialogue to be this inane, and even anachronistic.
I do give Zafon props for actually making me care about Julian by the end--poor, tortured, misunderstood artistic soul that he was--and for making me root for Daniel and beg Zafon not to kill off Bea, too.
All in all, not as well written as I had hoped, but still an entertaining mystery. AND a good source of new vocab, such as diaphonous. :)
Oops, I spelled "diaphanous" wrong. It means "characterized by such fineness of texture as to permit seeing through." Used in a sentence: "It was very inappropriate for Clara to be wearing a diaphanous garment when visited by young Daniel. She can't see, but he sure can!"
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