The Shadow Of The Wind

St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 28th October 2019.

The shadow of the wind. Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

General views about this book were that it was hard to read, demanding a lot of reader input, but was rewarding in the end. Some thought it took a long time to get going, but that the last 100 pages were great. Others found there was not enough movement in the narrative, and too much verbiage – 'florid' was one description. It was agreed that the length of the book was necessary because of all the different angles from which the plot had to be examined.

The group was not in agreement about the translation – some liked it, others not – but generally we thought that though the grammar was good, the idiom was less well handled. We also thought that the narrative seemed culturally foreign, partly because of the Latin 'macho' elements in it, most of the female characters appearing as sex objects to a large extent. We thought that possibly the passages dealing with macho culture were meant to be humorous, though we didn't especially find them so. We did appreciate the many colourful similes and metaphors though.

We discussed the fascinating 'love of books' element, and the general importance of books to people's lives, including why Julian burned his books – was it an attempt to obliterate himself from the world completely, or was it an act of remorse about his lover and child?

We were intrigued by the comparison between Daniel and Julian; and lastly, we talked about the significance of the title, which we thought perhaps might have been lost in translation.