the angel's game, zafon (2010)

Carlos Ruiz Zafon's "The Angel's Game" starts like this:

"A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood, and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets the most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price."

First paragraph: SOLD! WE HAVE A WINNER!

(Cut for generally non-spoilery rambling)



I picked up this Zafon book (my first, as I haven't read "Shadow of the Wind" - next up, let's hope Book Sale doesn't disappoint hehe) late last week and promised Andrea I'd be finished with it at the end of this week -- sadly I've been holding up the queue of people who wanted to borrow this book (hehe), and I figured, what the hell. I admit that this promise -- to finish a 500-page book in seven days - was very optimistic, granted my reading speed (speed of glaciers moving, etc) but Zafon's prose and plot proved to be impossible to resist.


In a nutshell, the story is about David Martin, a writer who finds himself in the middle of a strange project, in a strange house, and all these strange... happenings. (LOL - obviously, I don't want to spoil anyone.) He's... well, a writer. I'd describe him as a "tormented soul" but then, aren't all writers? LOL. I understand how sometimes the stories we write somehow manage to take charge of themselves right in the middle of the effort and take us places we never really see coming, but this -- oh Jesus, this was such a ride. A dark, delicious ride through tower houses and cemeteries and creepy libraries and bloodied cobblestone streets and oh that weather of perennial rain and thunder - familiar huh?

Things I loved about this book: Sempere and Sons, which strikes me as a cross between Harry Potter's Olivander's (the wand store?) and Book Sale (LOL); Isabella, the feisty girl who offers herself to Martin as an apprentice; and of course, Cristina, who is... well, I imagine she must be this simple Hispanic beauty. Zafon's general atmosphere here feels... dark and damp, like an afternoon of steady and unrelenting rainshowers, with the clouds all nimbus and heavy, but it's not, well, straight out evil. It's kind of like that. Like you want to give that afternoon a chance of being not-so gloomy so you keep reading on.

(Yes, kind of like the atmosphere of a basketball game involving the UP Maroons, only infinitely more exciting. Did I just compare a Zafon book's atmosphere to the UAAP? Christ.)

Also loved: The banter between Martin and Isabella; having a room with a window overlooking Barcelona (even if it's in a creepy towerhouse); the notion of being a starving writer still being romantic even after everything; and admittedly, even if it baffled me very much -- the promise of that ending.

Things I wish I read more of: The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Hands down one of the creepiest things I've ever read. (Hey, sometimes I find myself in a really narrow mini-room full of bound volumes of old newspapers since 1985, okay? I have a right to be creeped out.); excerpts of Lux Aeterna.

Things I am surprised I did not find repeated in this book, ad nauseam: Cigarette smoking, alcoholism. (Hey it's a writer's life, you know.)

The only thing I'm not crazy about in this book: HIS SPIDER SIMILES OMG. "As still as a spider" creeps me out every time. I don't like spiders, okay?

So with that, I'd leave you with this quote, as a gentle reminder to all of us: (And because I fucking liked it)

"Envy is the religion of the mediocre. It comforts them, it responds to the worries that gnaw at them and finally it rots their souls, allowing them to justify their meanness and their greed until they believe these to be virtues."