While I enjoyed the beginning and the end of Amuleto, I did not enjoy the book overall. 

Most of the time I was annoyed or bored. I just wanted the book to end but the process got dragged out even longer for me because my mind kept wandering and so I’d have to go back and re-read pages. For some reason, this style of writing doesn’t bother me as much in Savage Detectives, maybe because the first part was written in a different way (more journal-style entries) and maybe because we have different voices in part two, but I found Auxilio’s repetition extremely annoying (how many times did she say she was the mother of Mexican poetry?). At first I found it funny, but after a while I got annoyed. It felt like a weird way to fill in the words but Amuleto is a short story, so why the fillers? I provide an example here:

“Tal vez más delgada, pero en realidad no estaba más delgada. Tal vez más demacrada, aunque en realidad no estaba más demacrada. Tal vez más callada, pero me bastaron tres minutos para darme cuenta de que tampoco estana más callada… (Maybe more skinny but she wasn’t less skinny. Maybe more haggard [is this the correct translation?] although in reality she wasn’t more haggard. Maybe quieter but it took me three minutes to realize she wasn’t quieter either…)” (Bolaño 38-39).

The stories all seemed the same and so it felt like it was all blending together. I also hated the dialogue-style of writing, the back and forth of “I said and then she said and then I responded”… Sometimes it made for such long sentences and I just found it dull to read that over and over again. I named this post pulling teeth because that’s how it felt for me to get through this book… and what was with the two-pages of her prophecies?? It seemed unnecessary to me. 

However, as I mentioned above, I did enjoy the ending. I found it more interesting to read about these “dreams” she was having, conversing with other artists, such as Remedios Varo and Lilian Serpas. Since she continued to talk about being in the bathroom, on the fourth floor of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature, you could really see how traumatic of an experience this was for her (and I’m sure would have been for anyone). There were moments in which I thought maybe she had actually died and she was conversing with these dead artists in the Otherworld. It was interesting to notice as well that she seemed to be acknowledging more of her Uruguyan side, rather than just being the mother of Mexican poetry towards the end of the book. She is even surprised to find that her escalofríos (shivers) are Uruguyan and the guardian angel of her dreams is Argentinian, and we see more use of “vos” rather than “tú.” It seemed like an interesting coming home for her, perhaps as she was on the threshold of life and death?

I will admit that I’m glad this book is over though, and we can continue with Savage Detectives and our book-of-choice. 

I stopped reading at the end of chapter 19 of The Shadow of the Wind and oddly enough, it feels like I finished in the same place I finished last time. 

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I stopped right as Daniel had received information about Isaac’s daughter, Nuria. Isaac told him that Nuria and Julián Carax were involved with one another and he gave Daniel her address. I had assumed that the following chapter would have started with Daniel going to Nuria’s place to inquire about Carax, however this never happened. I found it strange, and a bit hard to believe, that the “creepy man” with the burnt face (Coubert) would not have come after Daniel, since he seemed pretty desperate to get his hands on the last copy of Carax’s book. However, Daniel does not go to visit Nuria until almost another 100 pages later (which is where I stopped). So once again, I am left wondering what information Nuria will give us about the mysterious author Julián Carax.

I truly love this story so far though, and it’s been interesting to change to its original Spanish version. I am following all of the conversations pretty well, however I get lost sometimes when Ruiz Zafón is describing scenes and background info, so sometimes I have to refer back to the English version to make sure I don’t miss anything. I am enjoying the challenge though, and always appreciate adding new Spanish words to my dictionary. There is so much I love about the Spanish language, I could write an entire blog about everything I love about it, but for today I will share a word I came across on page 142 that brought me such joy: palante. For the non-Spanish speakers, this is a blend of the two words para and adelante and I love when the Spanish mash two words into one like this! 

Getting back to the story, Daniel is well into his adolescence and early-adulthood now and it is interesting to see how his character has changed. He seemed like a timid boy at the beginning but his wild side is coming out now, or as Doña Aurora would call him, “un demonio – a devil.” She is the concierge of the building that Carax lived in and she refers to him this way because when he finds Carax’s old apartment suite (before he fled to France), he goes right on in and snoops through it. It seemed that Daniel had forgotten about Carax again, until he notices the shadow of Coubert when he is at the theater one night. Daniel is taking a deep dive into the mystery of Carax and has begun to involve his new friend and coworker at the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, Fermín Romero de Torres, into the mystery as well. 

We discover that Fermín has a criminal record and is wanted by an Inspector Francisco Javier Fumero Almuñiz (whom they just call Fumero). We begin to see traces of the horrific events that were happening during the Franco dictatorship: we find out the the scars over Fermín’s body were from being tortured and the watchmaker next door, Federico, is also wanted for “engaging in homosexual behaviours”. They ended up arresting Federico and it was really awful to read about what was done to him, especially because we know these are not fictional events. 

Fermín has become my favourite character because he is always giving me something to think about. He is quite opinionated and I will share an example of something he said that gave me pause:

“Not evil, moronic, which isn’t quite the same thing. Evil presupposes a moral decision, intention, and some forethought. A moron or a lout, however, doesn’t stop to think or reason. He acts on instinct, like a stable animal, convinced that he’s doing good, that he’s always right, and sanctimoniously proud to go around fucking up anyone he perceives to be different from himself…” (pg 186)

I really liked that and think it’s a precise distinction that he’s made there. I’m not sure why, but I sometimes wonder if the opinions shared through Fermín are opinions that the author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, had himself. Either way, what is being communicated here is that some of the acts committed throughout the dictatorship were not necessarily evil (though I think we can all agree that some acts definitely were) but many were also moronic. It hopefully causes people to reflect on actions they’d taken where they did not stop to think and that in future, they should.

I can feel the tension rising in the book, not only with the political situation happening in Spain, but also with the discoveries that Daniel is making about Carax. I am still not sure why Coubert has not taken action yet – it was obvious last time that if he did not get his hands on Carax’s book then there would be hell to pay, though this certainly adds to this tension. 

I’m curious if anyone has any opinions about why this seemingly dangerous man Coubert hasn’t done anything yet? 

Just as I said that I liked the journal-style writing in the first part of the book, I also really like the writing style of the second part. I am assuming that all the different voices talking are to represent these people being interviewed. In the first paragraph of section two we see:

“Amadeo Salvatierra, Calle República de Venezuela, near the Palacio de la Inquisición, Mexico City, DF, January 1976. My dear boys, I said to them, I’m so glad to see you, come right in, make yourselves at home, and as they filed down the hall, or rather felt their way, because the hall is dark and the bulb had burned out and I hadn’t changed it…” (Bolaño 143).

It reminds me very much of the way that someone would speak, as we tend to ramble or have side conversations sometimes, when telling a story. They are also mentioning not only the speaker but where the conversation took place. I liked having a backstory to some of the characters mentioned in the first part though I have to admit I was starting to lose track of who all the people were. I had to keep flipping back to previous chapters to remember who everyone was. Was Perla Avilés the one who went horseback riding with him? Or was that another woman?

I got really confused when I got to chapter 4 and started reading about Auxilio Lacouture (it sounds like this is the story we’ll read in Amulet?) It was definitely a much longer interview and I didn’t quite understand why she had her own designated chapter, unless she becomes a more central character later in the book. 

The interview that I found the most interesting was the one with María Font. I had been waiting to find out what exactly happen to Lupe and the visceral realists who had fled the city with her so I was eager to read what she had to say, about a year later. As you all know, we aren’t privy to that information yet but it was still interesting to read that her father is now in an asylum, and that Ulises and Arturo had gone to Sonora. Is this where they took Lupe? And what exactly happened to García Madero? When we were given backstory on the older visceral realists, it made sense why García Madero wasn’t included in these stories but why did María Font still not mention him? Did he stay behind with Lupe? I liked also getting inside of María Font’s head, since all information we had of her before was from García Madero’s perspective. It was interesting to read that having sex and/or being nude with others provides her with comfort, security and tranquility (pg. 194).

I feel much more interested in the story now and I am looking forward to continuing in a couple weeks.

I also find it interesting and I am sure I am not the only one who noticed a new connection between Arturo Belano and Roberto Bolaño, since Belano is apparently moving to Spain (and the same happened for Bolaño). 

I will begin with a short summary of what has happened so far in The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. The story begins in an interesting way, saying that the narrator’s father brought him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books (in Barcelona, where they live) and already I am wondering what this is. Is it a literal cemetery? The first line spoken by one of the characters is the father, telling the narrator, Daniel, that he “musn’t tell anyone what [he’s] about to see today” (Ruiz Zafón 3). We find out that Daniel is only 10-years-old and this “cemetery” is actually a bookstore. Daniel is allowed to choose, or “adopt”, one book, but Daniel says that he feels the book has actually adopted him. That book is called The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. As the story begins in the summer of 1945, we know that the Spanish civil war is over (1936-1939) and they have entered the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Daniel wants to read more of Carax’s books but finds out through his father’s friend, Barceló, and Barceló’s daughter, Clara, that Daniel holds the last of any of Carax’s books because all the rest have been burned. Daniel ends up falling in love with Clara, who is almost 10 years older than him, so he puts aside many of his interests for a few years and spends most of his time with her. Around the same time that he realizes Clara will never love him, he is visited by the man who has been burning Carax’s books because he wants the final copy to burn. This brings Daniel back into the mystery of Carax. All he (and we) know so far is that Carax was also from Barcelona, fled to Spain during the war, but apparently died in Barcelona. I stopped at page 77, right as Daniel finds out that Isaac’s (book keeper of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books) daughter had a love affair with Carax. 

It was extremely difficult for me to put the book down after that. I felt hooked from the very beginning and just as I was getting into more of this mystery I had to put it down. I am already looking forward to picking it back up, though I have to admit that even though Savage Detectives didn’t pull me in in the same way, I am curious to know what’s going to happen next (and if it will pull me in more!)

As they mentioned in the book, it was quite common for Spaniards to flee the country during that time and try to create a new life for themselves in France. I believe more people left during the dictatorship (though I would have to research whether that was true or not) and I found it curious that it was mentioned that Carax knew what was coming: he knew Spain would be worse after the war than it already was and so he got a headstart, trying to create a better life for himself. So why did he go back to Spain? It seems his stay in France was quite short-lived. However, since this story is set during the dictatorship, my hypothesis is that there is some kind of connection to this and why Carax’s books were being burned… and perhaps why he decided to go back to Spain.

I was reminded of my own family, reading about the war and the escape into France, however they did not take this headstart, like Carax had. They fled Spain (by walking hundreds of kilometers) to find a better life in France (and eventually Canada), after they witnessed how Franco was ruling the country. 

It isn’t just the historical part that feels most interesting to me, it’s also Ruiz Zafón’s style of writing that I enjoy. It seems that he is also using a lot of foreshadowing, such as, “I felt sure that The Shadow of the Wind had been waiting for me there for years, probably since before I was born, (Ruiz Zafón 7). That tells us that there is going to be some reason why this book chose to “adopt” Daniel. There must be something that the book wants Daniel to learn, or perhaps grow into, in his life. 

I feel I can go on and on, sharing all my thoughts and things I loved about these first several chapters, but I will end with a paragraph that I really loved: “I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later – no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget – we will return, (Ruiz Zafón 8). I absolutely loved this and believe that it’s true. Even if we do not re-read books that we once loved, there is something about those books that have left imprints on our lives, and I think we return back to the themes of those books, because they speak to our souls.

PS I also found the Spanish edition of The Shadow of the Wind as I was wandering through Indigo the other day so I also took this as a sign of being adopted by it and will continue the rest of the semester reading the Spanish edition, as a nice challenge for me.

I have to admit that I’m not quite sure what to think of this book so far. I got pulled into it right away – I quite enjoy the journal-entry-style-writing and I was interested following the story of García Madero’s shift from being a law student to joining a group of poets. The part in which I started to feel disinterested was when he started sharing either his or his friend’s sexual experiences. Some of it made me feel sick to my stomach, especially when they spoke about everyone’s interest in taking Angélica’s virginity.

While I understand that the book is set in 1975 Mexico, and is written by a 17-year-old boy, it was evidently very sexist and I was not only feeling disturbed by it, but I also just started to find it all to be boring. It felt like I had read 40 pages of the same thing over and over again and I was considering whether I should start skipping some pages (or at least paragraphs) because I didn’t feel like I needed to read about another man degrading another woman in bed. While this interest for sex never completely went away, it did feel like it at least started to include some other parts of his day, like searching for Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano in book stores, conversations with his aunt and uncle, etc.

I was starting to feel a bit confused around when García Madero got sick. I wondered if he was on drugs or if there were also some hallucinations happening for him too, especially when he was trying to call María. What Lima and Belano shared with him when they went to visit him about Quim pretending to be Angélica left me pondering what was actually true. Quim was referred to many times as not being “in his right mind,” (but then he refers to more people as not being in their “right mind” either) but I began to wonder whether there was something happening to García Madero himself? I’m not sure, I just noticed a bit of a shift in his emotions or thoughts as the story went on and I’m curious if anyone else experienced this.

I felt sad to hear about the situation that Lupe was in throughout the whole book and I’m curious to hear about what happens for her. While this book brought up many different emotions for me, I did still feel interested to know about where this story was going.

There were many parts that I felt like were unnecessary details to include and I didn’t understand their relevance, however whenever I felt this way, I reflected back on our first class and remembered that we would be diving into what long stories are and why they write them, so I am interested to learn more about this (I even find himself getting annoyed in movies sometimes, wondering why they made certain scenes as long as they did).