I don’t think I have ever
read a quicker 500-page book than Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s second entry in his
trilogy of The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, The Angel’s Game. It moves rapidly,
with a cool number of plot twists at the very beginning, with an engaging story
and characters that are cool and interesting to follow when they are being
equally good or equally bad. It’s sharpness and wit make it the perfect kind of
book to take to the beach with you. Having said that, it is a flawed book, with
many problems keeping it from being a full-on masterpiece, which I think Zafon
has in him. After a good opening, it follows that with a rather large section
of the book that is very bland and never goes anywhere interesting, instead
focusing on a conspiracy that is less interesting than the initial conflict,
filling this plotline with interchangeable characters that I didn’t even bother
to care about. But the opening, as I said is strong. The novel focuses on
writer David Martin, whose sad childhood and existence is only outweighed by
the worthlessness of his current job. He wants to write great works, and marry
the girl of his dreams. But both are elusive creatures: he makes most of his
money writing awful “penny dreadfuls” that he doesn’t take credit for, and the
girl, Cristiana, refuses to marry him. After a laughably cruel twist of fate
and even more laughably betrayal involving a writer he admired, a mysterious
stranger approaches him and commissions him to write a religious text, which
throws him in the middle of a cover-up involving the last tenant in the
decaying mansion Martin is living end. This plotline is too big to ignore, and
really slows things down after a killer first section, with David’s backstory
only intensifying his loneliness at the beginning. It saves itself at the end
with a heartwarming conclusion that works more on an emotional level than a
logical one. Zafon is great writer and storyteller who deserves the
international praise he gets.
Rating: 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment