Friday, January 22, 2010

Cannonball Read #5: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafron

 I know that this has been a long time in coming, but between the holidays and starting a new job I've gotten somewhat sidetracked. All I have to say that I love Carlos Ruiz Zafron. Although his books take me twice as long to read, I think this is just because his imagery is soo complex and so dense that you can get lost in the world. Somehow I just imagine Barcelona in this time as a dark and dank world with occasional burst of brilliant sunshine. That's just me though.



Anyway.... The Angel's Game explored the paths into one lonely writer's mind. The thing that I love about this writer is that you leave the book asking as many questions as when you arrive. Following young writer David Martin through his growth as a writer, we explore Barcelona in the same era as his previous book "The Shadow of the Wind". Zafron writes about writers and books and literature and the exploration of life through the eyes of a reader. The way in which he really addresses this issues of love and happiness are very realistic and at the same time fantastically romantic. Unrequited love is a classic storyline in the novel but I feel that while he addresses it, it is only really exists in order to make his main character's loneliness and (seeming) descent into crazy-dom more poignant.

 The only thing I would say is that while I enjoy books leaving me with questions, this one did not answer perhaps the biggest mystery in the story. I just wish I knew more. But all in all, it is greatness. That's all I can say.