While I still have about 90 pages left to read, I can tell that the book is starting to wrap up. I had a feeling that the famous author Julián Carax was not dead, and while this hasn’t actually been confirmed yet, we did find out that on the night that everyone thought Carax died, his best friend (Miquel Moliner) switched identities with him and died that night instead. We will find out shortly if Carax is still alive, or died in another way at a later point.
I have to say that I’m a little disappointed with the grand mystery of Julián Carax. I was expecting some bigger (and maybe more credible?) reason for why someone would want to kill him. Inspector Fumero is clearly evil, so the fact that he wanted to kill Carax just because Carax and Penélope were lovers (and Fumero loved her too, even though he never told anyone about this) could make sense but the fact that Jorge Aldaya (Penélope’s brother) wanted to kill Carax just because his father asked him years ago to do so? And that he blamed Carax for the reason why his family fell into poverty? It just seems too dramatic and unrealistic to me. Also that Nuria Monfort fell in love with Carax before she even met him? She loved him just because of stories she had heard about him? I don’t know about all of that.
Having said all of that though, it is still a very engaging story. I was hooked from the beginning and have found it difficult to put down at every moment. I am still interested to find out if Carax is still alive and if Daniel (our main character and narrator) will get to meet him. What is the connection between Daniel and Carax? And what about what I read back on page 373, that Daniel would be dead in seven days? There are still some questions left unanswered so I hope they will be answered before the book ends.
You can feel the darkness of the Spanish Civil War, and the following dictatorship, throughout the book (especially in the second half of it). They do mention some things happening in the country but you can mostly feel it throughout the stories of the characters. It’s hard to read sometimes, especially because my family would have lived through some of it (they came to Canada in the 40s/50s). It’s impossible not to think of them, wherever I read about this time period, however it always surprises me that it somehow helps me understand myself better. It seems that each time I gather information about my family (including who they were, what they lived through, etc), it’s like I gain another piece of my very own puzzle of identity.
A question for the class: Off the top of your head, are there any books you’ve read that led you to a deep reflection about life, and therefore felt like it changed your life as a result of it? Please share the name of the title and why, if you can think of any! 🙂
“I have to say that I’m a little disappointed with the grand mystery of Julián Carax. I was expecting some bigger (and maybe more credible?) reason for why someone would want to kill him.”
Alas! Let’s hope the ending isn’t too much of a disappointment. Though it sounds as though, ultimately, this mystery isn’t in fact what has carried you through the book. I wonder if the mystery isn’t in fact required at all? Would it be fair to say that you, at least, have been more interested in the backdrop rather than the plot, in so far as it “somehow help[ed] me understand myself better.”
Personally, however, I don’t think I read to find out more about myself. Rather, reading is more about forgetting oneself, and imagining what it is like to be other, to be different from one’s self. I recently made a video with Angolan writer, José Eduardo Agualusa, who ended up saying something similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LtUwV2S9Yc.
Thank you for sharing, I haven’t watched the video yet but I’ll try to get to it on the weekend 🙂
It’s true that I probably still would have enjoyed the book without the mystery, but I am definitely a lover of mysteries so it helped a lot! I hope the ending won’t disappoint either!
I don’t think there’s books that have “changed my life” in the sense of a deep reflection of myself, but there’s been moments when books have caused such strong emotions that I take decisions based on them. The most recent is probably “Las Voladoras” by Mónica Ojeda, which made me realize how much I love working with short stories and that feeling has made me reconsider my research project. For me a life changing book is one that awakens a sense of deep, intense curiosity.
That’s so cool, thanks for sharing! Maybe I will check it out myself 🙂
Hi, one book that led me to reflect on my own life was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. It is a book pertaining to race and beauty standards and it made me think about how just valuable the social currency of beauty is and the power it has to make or break someone’s life.
Thanks for sharing!
I have never seen the movie so I’m not sure how well it translated over to film, but a book that made me deeply self reflect (second disclaimer: I was 16 at the time so #grainofsalt) was Life of Pi by Yann Martel (I may have to read his new book releasing soon, his first in a decade). The main character is a boy who loved religion as a hobby more than anything else, which I had never had presented to me as an option beforehand.