Brain Food, Part II

More Books:

12/4/05 - The Shadow of the Wind (3.5 stars)

by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

What a great find! A customer at Shaman Drum recommended this novel to me maybe a year ago when it came out. I have been meaning to read it for ages. At the end of November, I won The Daily Dose contest at Powell's and used my $40 gift certificate to buy The Shadow of the Wind, The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, The Dream of the Red Chamber: The Golden Days by Cao Xueqin, and The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch. I picked up The Shadow of the Wind the day it arrived - I'd been slogging through Peter Watson's The Modern Mind and I was not enjoying it. (Someday, I may finish this book. Someday.)

Set in Madrid shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War, The Shadow of the Wind tells the story of a young boy whose father, upon learning that the boy has lost the memory of his mother's face (at the novel's beginning, she has been dead four years), takes him to a hidden building that houses Madrid's Cemetary of Lost Books. There, the boy finds a copy of The Shadow of the Wind, a novel by Julian Carax. The boy begins reading as soon as he returns home, adn does not stop until the book is through; it is the best book that he has ever read in his entire life.

Wanting to know more about this mysterious author, the child begins a hunt for more of Carax's books, but none are to be found. A mysterious man has been hunting down and burning the writings of Julian Carax since the end of the Spanish Civil War, and it seems that the copy of The Shadow of the Wind, Carax's last novel, is the only one of his books that still survives. He begins a hunt for Julian Carax himself, hoping to find out why someone would destroy the works of such a gifted author.

The Shadow of the Wind is a mystery and a love story, as well as a tale of the destruction that war can bring. I would give it 4.5 stars if not for the fact that after 400 pages of lose ends in the plot, Zafon brings the novel to a close with a 100 page letter from one of the characters. This was lame. Otherwise, a great read.

12/5/05 - Bee Season (4.0 stars)

by Myla Goldberg

Beautifully written novel about the most painfully dysfunctional family ever. 10-year-old Eliza is in the slow-learner's class, and a source of constant disappointment to her father, Saul. She and her brother Aaron are constantly vying for his attention, having to compete with his spiritual studies. Meanwhile, their inattentive mother Miriam is off in a la-la-land of her own creation, and barely notices her husband or children.

The plot comes to a head when Eliza wins a place at the state spelling bee, and replace saaron as Saul's favorite child. Aaron starts questioning his religion and joins up with a cult, Miriam gets arrested, and Saul can't handle the crisis in his household; it comes down to Eliza to pull her family back together. Great novel. [I've heard the movie wasn't great - I'll probably catch it on DVD.]