The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Review and Breakdown

what's up everybody this is Ian Cadillac from conscious riders tribe and I'm here today with another conscious book review where we look at a novel or book from a spiritual or conscious lens so today we have the shadow of the wind by carlos ruiz zafon if I miss if I'm going if I keep mispronouncing his name I'm sorry also spoil alert I'm going to be going over spoilers throughout this whole review and analysis so warning so the five points I'd like to talk about during this are the historical context of the novel what is this novel about where is it what's happening around that time I'm going then I'm going to do some character analysis we're going to look about look at how these characters fit into this coming-of-age or build Bill's doug ramon novel fourth i'm going to have a few quotes here I'm going to explicate on those and maybe expand on that and that's going to tie into the fourth point which is talking about the author's style and how he utilizes certain things and then last but not least just some concluding thoughts and my general rating and if you should read this book or not and you should read you the spoke spoil alert so that when is a novel take place it takes place in 1940 in the 1930s and 40s mostly there's a little bit of time shifting in Barcelona Spain there's two different ways you could take this in terms of genre you could call this crime a crime fiction novel and I see a lot of a lot of similarities to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the Sherlock Holmes author author and Edgar Allan Poe with some of that it's up that realm of crime fiction and it's not what we would think of modern crime fiction but in my opinion I would put this more in the historical magical realism side we see a lot of magical realism in this novel a lot of I know as our phone really goes deep with trying to get that point across we're gonna see that an author style portion but he really I think forces this is magical realism and of course it's historical novel cause it's nineteen forty five so let's talk a little bit about the context of when this is all happening so 30s and 40s Europe of course more more twos happening but Spain really wasn't involved in with anything they were a neutral country neutral who's helping out the Axis powers and in the early 1930s there was more of a left-wing government in place in Spain and a right-wing group started rising of kind of a fascist militant dictatorial group start advising very similar to what was happening in Italy and Germany and they started gathering troops and they were supported by Mussolini and Hitler and they overthrew the government and it they recalled their leaders last name was Franco I should remember his first name very important historical figure but they were basically called the age of Franco Franco ISM and that's what's happening in this novels there's a lot of allusions to what's happening in the Franco regime and we see that mostly with Fumero and for Fiat firm in I mean I'm trying to get it right in Spanish so Romero and four men are the two polarities of what's happening in this regime we have the inspector who's basically a shill for the state he's helping push this state's agenda and he represents state care the care of the state what what the brutalities of what's happening in this regiment and Fuhrman Fuhrman represents the de trauma an individual encapsulated in the trauma of a dictatorial state and we see this trauma a lot like his hands getting sweating him acting a little bit shaky and shady and weird when when he hears the inspectors name or he's under suspicion or when there's at the what the watch maker gets interrogated for doing some homosexual activity or someone who's he's doing some dragging I think and we most see this during the PTSD scene where he's at the apartment and he's naked and crying and there's this whole scene and he thinks he's back in torture so what is Furman's why how did we get to this point though Furman was worked for the past government and he was at one point tortured by the inspector tortured a lot and he actually gave up the names he actually gave into the torture and get gave up names of other people who were involved with whatever he was doing and when he gets out his whole life has been repossessed which was happens in these types of extreme left-wing or right-wing governments if he gets out of no family no anything everything and he's basically meant he's put it on the streets and you see a lot of this in this book night watchman and maybe not as much if you look a little level or two deeper than just what's happening in the novel you see this Franco regime so this novel is a in a sense and this is maybe something not very mentioned and what's interesting about all this is that they're only found one or two academic journal actually only found one academic journal entry on this novel and it really wasn't anything relevant to the interior tea or any textual stuff was more talking about the francoism of the novel I saw a lot of things but they were all in espanol so I obviously didn't read them and I especially I have some limited knowledge of Spanish but not enough to be reading academic journals so but one thing I came across in this novel is that it's a critique of the right wing because one aspect of francoism is that they were saying that the communists or socialists or people on the left wing are not very smart that they're trying to enter this group collective consciousness and they're vile people there and these are quotes from I did some research into the francoism they really thought that left wingers were kind of dumb and that they had you know this Catholic backing and they had these universal principles and laws and that they had a superior intellect but as we see Fumero is it smart he's in this read regime and all his men are our sills and they're not very smart but then we see Furman who's apparently the enemy in his grandiose intellect he's the smartest guy in the whole book and that's basically saying you know I think it's a critique of the right wing and saying that these people aren't really that smart and you know I think a lot of academics right now say that about right wingers too like they say oh look at all these Donald Trump redneck people they're not very smart and but that's there's generalizations those are very big generalizations and usually it the dictatorial powers are very extreme power people in power aren't ever very smart they that's why they get in there because they just push their way in they're there and the intellectual side both people on the left wing and right wing are actually very smart and have a lot of good ideas and that's why we function as a society because both sides actually have ideas that work but they just need to be used at different times for them for us to continue to evolve so talking about polarities we have that polarity but this gets into the angel and demons theme throughout this novel there's an angel and demon thing that actually kind of ties into and it's kind of funny because you think about it Spain is very has a lot I mean it's Spain you know very the Inquisition and oh what a nightmare right but they it's into this Catholicism and Christianity aspect which is you know very big at this time so we have the angels and demons but who are the angels and the demons when the mains angel and demon transformations we see is through Julian the not the the novel and the author of the shadow of the wind not this author but of the of the book and we see him loving Penelope so much love so much even love for his friends like Miguel we have you know very nice guy love for his books love of writing but then we see this terrible transformation happen where he becomes just totally a lot of hate he becomes a devil he luke burns himself he becomes the devil right on the opposite side of this we see Furman experienced a death in the street he's experienced a death of his self a death of his old self and he is now you know he's but but then he rises from the ashes he's you could call him a devil a devilish man on the streets but now he he Rises through the ashes to the same things that through the same thing as Julian found love through which is books which is a big big part of this novel you know The Forgotten Cemetery and all in a lot of emphasis on books which we'll see more on the quotes so that's interesting and we see throughout the novel this polarity played out through the men and the women mostly the women are portrayed as these angelic beings and unfortunately as when we get into character analysis will see that they aren't very deep and they're just basically these angelic figures that help lift up or our arm candy for these just screwed up guys who don't know what the heck is going on so there's missed Oracle context so now let's get into the characters this is where a lot of the novel's problems stem from so let's just kind of start from the start what's the point of Clara right okay we is it to further Daniels is the further Daniel for a future triumph is that what's happening here like when you think about it what she doesn't really appear later in the scene other than create and later in the novel other than to create some awkward little tension like oh hey Daniel I I didn't I'm sorry I'm with you in the shower and you're naked but I'm blind right like is that it is that is that but we see this deep character she's very well-read she's blind she has a different view on reality but we don't get very much depth with her but it's there so there's the Clara incident or the Clara problem and this starts to move into all the female characters like they all seem pretty deep and they all expect of deep emotions but do they really have deep plot lines or deep characterizations or an evolution so we have Penelope who is a reader once again very smart has access to this beautiful library but she dies in this bloody scene which was great I mean the bloody scene the stillborn baby her dying and the blood in the room like that was very well done and a very tragic end to her life but we don't really see anything other than she really likes Daniel or really liked Julian and then she dies like that was it look at Claire we talked about Claire look at was it baya be a baby oh she smart carrot once again she likes books everything one these people great every every single one of these chicks except Sophie loves books and is really smart so she's this literature student really smart Daniel I was like oh my god I love her so much she's so beautiful she can't believe the the forgotten book play she's like this is great but what did she do really I mean she's there is moral support but when she gets carted off we don't really see her do very much throughout the whole novel she's not very other than just be a like I said an uplifting it for Daniel so then there's Sophie we don't really see much from her either other than that she you know is a happy and her marriage she once again we don't see very much characterization with Maria that's the that's nya is the most complex character a female character in this book and we see her whole evolution from being the the daughter of the of the Watchmen for the cemetery and once again she is very well-read she falls in love with Julian her and Julian have this thing because she's his publisher so we start we and we see this whole thing she's the one that writes the goofy letter to Daniel and explains everything and she has the whole affair with Miguel and and then she takes care of Julian after his burning so that there's a lot of depth with her we get to see her maybe evolve a little bit and how much she loves and how much she shows her love and the trials and tribulations of her so I think that was a hit by him but now we get let's get to Daniel real fast is he's our main character but do we really see that big of a progression like okay I guess he isn't a coward anymore we see this little tiny scene at the end where he attacks the inspector and saves a life but it's not really that big of a triumph and I think this has sustained in the coming of age category rather than the build dogs Ramon because the build dogs Ramon and you could say that million different ways but the German coming-of-age story it doesn't necessarily fall into that because one of the main tenets of a bill dogs Ramon is that it shows deep character growth and I know I didn't see very much deep character growth coming from Daniel right like I mean you just asked that question yourself I mean you see a little bit but the real the real growth like revelations changing as a person spiritual development we're looking at this from a spiritual angle I don't see that spiritual development like we saw from Julien and Maria because if we look at Julien he actually has a spiritual side him and he spiritually develops and then at the end he reconciles himself and atones I would say for his his sins but it tells from all the burning of the books and this brings us to the letter and there's a lot of problems I mean there's not that many Paul's but this is a huge problem that when it's pretty obvious that Julian is the guy burning the book so that was pretty obvious I mean it's pretty obvious if you've ever if you're into crime stuff but then it's like wait everything this whole plot is explained in as a letter but we had to get it through a letter we couldn't get it to bits and pieces and put it together ourselves basically it's just um just puking plot you know which is all in our face like oh my gosh so now I understand everything and I think that was very amateurish and not not as a fellow writer that could have been executed better but I see that maybe one he's on a deadline it's its start of his career we kinda you kind of get to the end you're like wait how do I get all this out we need to get all this out of all these cool stuff going on but screw it we'll do a letter and now let's talk about some quotes and he actually makes fun of himself with one of the quotes a story is a letter that the author writes to himself to tell himself things that he wouldn't be able to discover otherwise so he's writing a letter in himself that he's saying I couldn't discover any of this stuff really by myself so I'm just gonna do this through a letter which I mean that's nice Uli's told us that's pretty cool that there was a bit of metafiction going on right with that so it's many a few of these other quotes quote I felt myself surrounded by millions of abandoned pages by worlds and souls without an owner sinking in an ocean of darkness while the world that throbbed outside the library seemed to be losing its memory and that gets and that's that's pretty cool I mean this all there's a lot of emphasis on how books help us and how the importance of books and that's why I really love this novel even with some of its problems of characterization and the lighter thing that okay let's keep moving on because there's a critique of television next television is the Antichrist our world will not die as a result of the tongue of the bomb it will die of laughter of being banality of making a joke of everything we see this critique of or a critique of television gets brought up and that's interesting because that's the opposite of books the cinema is going to take over and it did take over and and now in this book being written in two thousand he knows that now and he can kind of make fun and he can overemphasize those points and make the characters seem Furman who says that makes him seem smarter than he is because he's really smart like wow this guy knows what's gonna happen quote the art of reading is slowly dying that it's an that it's an intimate ritual that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we carry inside of us that when we read we do it with all our heart and mind and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day and this is and that's why I think a lot of us like this book because it speaks on things like that it brings us back to books and literature and a lot of the characters like I said look at all the female characters look at his dad look and Furman they're all very well read and we like people that are well bred because we're most likely well read and we see that the con mirror-image stage going between us were like wow and it's working on her brain I think that was very smart of him and to do that and employ that employ that tool so let's get into some of the style style style so like I said before there's a lot of forcing of magical realism which I think really works but one of the downfalls is that there are a lot of adjectives in here there are a lot of adjectives and not so many adverbs but maybe a little bit more than I prefer in terms of I would look at a sentence and be like okay you could have done this better and that's just being honest and but everyone as a writer there's always sentences you can do better but there were there was a lot of overexertion of style I feel but that's that could be the translation there could be a lot of different things that's kind of more the European style anyway is just kind of like who this but sometimes the flowery metaphors upon metaphors is too much but I am writing historical magical realism novel right now that's how I came to this novel and people are gonna say that about me there's gonna be reviewers on YouTube that I would like I'm damned what the hell was he in talking about what was that man that was way too much cuz I have some scenes I'm just like and that's the thing you say is right or like you know some people are gonna say that but screw it I really like this I'm holding on to this and I'm going forward with this so I think that's where he got in here and I think that's where he got himself into a mess with some of that plot point too is like he's like I'm gonna keep going and he got to the end he was like crap I don't think I could fit this in anywhere else so we're just gonna do this we're just gonna throw this in all in that once so some concluding thoughts should you read this book of course this is a really good book I would give it a 4 out of 5 maybe if out of five I'll just stick with for the whole if you're a reader of his in you need to read this the language is very good the setting the magical realism the spiritual aspects the conscious aspects of of it which we didn't really get into but it's about connecting and feeling and loving and the power of love and the power of forgiveness with Julian and getting over and transcending we see the transcendence of Julian I think that's really important for readers now that we don't have novels that take that magical leap of faith without delving into fantasy this is very grounded historical magical realism and it's not like been oak trees like a like just AB absurdly magical realism this stays grounded in magical realism so everyone check out this novel let me know what you think in the comments let me know if I missed anything what you thought about this book how I did on this review check out the website conscious riders tribe there's a lot of information on there a lot of articles a lot of other videos on this YouTube channel that break down a lot of other books and do deeper analysis of them in separate videos so I'll see you guys later on the next conscious book review peace

Channel: The Lit Underground

Views: 208

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: Z8LuG9visvM

Length: 21min 23sec (1283 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020