May 30, 2019
Review of The Shadow of the Wind
Some time ago, when I reviewed Michel Laub’s Diary of the Fall, I mentioned how sometimes all the ingredients can be there but the recipe is still a failure. Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind is somewhat similar, I’m afraid. All the ingredients are there, yes. It kinda works, and yet it doesn’t.
To be fair, I think Zafón’s novel works comparatively better. That is, one can still read it and somewhat enjoy it. However, The Shadow of the Wind aspires to be a Gothic tale. And to this Gothic fiction specialist, it comes off as a failed attempt.
Review of The Shadow of the Wind: Genre, Plot, Narrative
Gothic; that’s what the novel would like to be. Mystery; that’s what it really is.
The interesting part is that the book is constructed in a way that it can successfully fool the average reader. That is, someone without experience in Gothic fiction will see a suspenseful plot, dark settings, shady characters, and even some suggestion of the supernatural.
In a way, you can’t fault the author. If this is the impression the average reader gets, then the book has managed to do some things well, right? Its bestseller status certainly seems to verify it. At this point I should also mention that the book’s language and witticisms are on very high levels; I thoroughly enjoyed them.
So, what’s the problem?
The Gothic Sleight of Hand
There is a significant number of Gothic tropes marching through the 500+ pages of the novel. Off the top of my head, these include:
- Dark settings. “Dark” here refers not only to the literal absence of light, but also to aesthetic qualities. Cemeteries, mansions, alleys, “haunted” houses (with or without quotation marks).
- Shady characters. Some characters are clad in mystery. Others are evil personified. Some of them are portrayed as evil, quite literally (try to think what that refers to).
- Issues of patriarchy, both literally (in terms of familial relationships) but also more generally. The novel refers to aspects of class and gender in a very Gothic way – whether simply referring is enough, will be the core of this review, as you will see later on.
- The trope of incest. You might not be aware of it, if you’re not familiar with Gothic fiction, but incest has been a Gothic trope since the earliest days of the Gothic mode. In The Shadow of the Wind, we only have… incest light (0% added sugar), which is another way to say, the trope is referred to. We’ll talk about this, too, later.
- Temporal concerns. Past, Future, and the Eternal Present of Gothic expectations.
- Suspended judgment on the ontology of supernatural. Take a look at my article on the differences between the Gothic and other non-realist modes. What the novel does is to suggest the presence of supernatural (occasionally very strongly), but never really embracing the possibility (or…?) Actually, this is one of the few things that work properly in the novel, in terms of Gothic tropes.
- Gothic doubles. One of the most famous Gothic tropes (think of Jekyll and Hyde) finds its place inside The Shadow of the Wind, too.
The Checklist Way of Masking Narrative Weaknesses
The problem is, although Zafón has ticked all the boxes, he has done little else with them. The Gothic conventions are referred to, but not exploredIf you want to see a successful example, read my review of Robert Eggers’s The Lighthouse. The novel suffers from a painful lack of exploring what lies under the surface of these Gothic conventions: exploring the metaphysical, the sublime, or even the core sociocultural issues surrounding it.
The Shadow of the Wind, for all its faux intellectuality, never truly addresses the topics it pretends to engage with: the creative process, one’s existence (particularly in connection with their past), aesthetics and beauty, class struggle, or gender sensitivities.
Ultimately, the novel seems all too eager to throw these Gothic devices, as if in an effort to mask its weaknesses, which are quite eminent.
Plot Problems
I have mentioned more than once that a successful narrative needs to be more than a sum of its parts. What this means is that, in order for a book to be meaningful, the reader must find things that don’t…exist in the novel’s pages.
In simpler words, a good book should inspire you to think; of what-ifs, of how-could-it-happens, and so on. Meaning is not the author’s job.
The problem with The Shadow of the Wind is that it relies on its generic conventions to an excessive extent. The character development is weak, with the characters little more than caricatured stereotypes (see more below).
The plot itself is at the same time both simplistic and convoluted – quite an achievement, frankly. Basically, the entire plot could be adequately portrayed in less than half the current length of the novel. The rest is basically just drivel.
Review of The Shadow of the Wind: Characters
As I have already mentioned, the characters of Zafón’s novel are stereotyped and unidimensional. It’s hard to identify or even sympathize with any of them, because their struggles and problems don’t feel realistic enough.
For a mystery novel, this isn’t detrimental. On the other hand, The Shadow of the Wind balances awkwardly between genres, as I explained.
Probably the best way to approach the novel is precisely that: as a quasi-bastardized form, not quite resolving into anything concrete. Ironically enough, this aspect actually propels it a bit closer to Gothic territory – the push not being enough, still, to help it make it there.
Review of The Shadow of the Wind: General Impression
I’m a bit torn about Zafón’s novel. Interestingly enough, soon after I began reading I thought “wow, this will be a 5-star book”. I’ve long waited for a Gothic masterpiece, and the way the novel began felt promising.
Somewhere along the way, about 150 pages in, I lowered my expectations. “This will be a 4-star book”, I thought. I still admired the excellent language (kudos to Lucia Graves, the translator) as well as the great sense of humor, but I’d realized by then that the novel didn’t break any new ground. It was, I thought, just a good Gothic novel.
Another 150 pages later, I had downgraded my rating further. Now it had become apparent that The Shadow of the Wind wasn’t even a Gothic novel, it was just trying to take advantage of Gothic conventions.
In the end, the book managed to hold this 3-star rating, but only barely. Again, I must emphasize that the average reader will probably enjoy it, despite its lack of depth or its ending – which comes off as laughably melodramatic.
To me, it comes off merely as an entertaining text – albeit, one containing some very high-quality language – and, sadly, a lost opportunity.
One Comment
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Ouch. Depth is not a checklist.
If you’re right (I haven’t read this), it’s a huge waste of space.
I haven’t been too thrilled by a lot of the NYT bestsellers I’ve read – I just skimmed my way through Anna Quindlen’s Blessings, after I realized that practically every page was a long involved sidetrack into the past I wasn’t interested in. My opinion, of course. I’m getting crotchety.