Meeting on Wednesday November 24th
We have been reading “Angel’s Game” by the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This is a “prequel” to Zafon’s more famous, earlier, “The Shadow of the Wind” which was set in Barcelona just after the Civil War. ‘Angel’s Game’ is set in the 1920s, political unrest is all around, Barcelona is in many ways a desolate place and the clouds of war are already gathering on the horizon. Frances was struck by the fact that although we know that Barcelona is usually hot and sticky, the overall feeling of the book is of cold. The heat is referred to and people sit outside to escape the torpor; even so, the atmosphere as well as being dark also has a chill about it the whole way through the book.
The story is told by David Martin , a young man finding his way after a difficult childhood; abandoned by his mother and brought up by his ex soldier father – a difficult and embittered man. David finds some measure of success as a journalist writing a series of crime stories for the back page of “The Voice of Industry”. As his imagination and the stories develop, they take on a realism of their own and the characters and places in the short stories seem to come to life for David. The divide between reality and imagination becomes more blurred, but the streets and places are firmly set in the real Barcelona and are recognisable today.
We all agreed the book was extremely well written, atmospheric and dark, peopled with rounded characters. It is a page-turner which nevertheless leaves many questions unanswered. The division between the real and the imagined is blurred and most of us found the Epilogue unsatisfactory and possibly unnecessary – an attempt to tie up some loose ends perhaps? A couple of the group found some of the philosophising rather dull and some of the modern idiom jarred a little –surprising since the translation is by Lucia Graves, daughter of Robert Graves. Would we read this book again? Two of the group have already read it twice, and another couple certainly intend doing so! Would we recommend it to a friend? Certainly.
Our next meeting will be on 26th January when we will be discussing two books: “The Thing around your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, the author of “Purple Hibiscus” and “Half of a Yellow Sun”, and “The Snow Goose” by Paul Gallico. We will also be planning our Spring reading and have decided to add Dickens’ “Great Expectations” and “Homage to Catalonia” by George Orwell to the list of books we may choose.
