200 of 208 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Angel's Game, April 22, 2009
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I opened this book expecting a novel similar to The Shadow of the Wind. That was silly of me, and The Angel's Game is very different. The story is much darker and uses many more supernatural elements. There are sections that you read and then think you must have dreamed as they are barely ever alluded to again. There is a great deal of physical violence and disturbing psychological drama. It is an angry book, full of theological debates and the hard truth that sometimes, things just don't end perfectly. There are so many characters- and some characters with many personae- that it is easy to get confused. In fact, I must admit, I'm not entirely sure exactly what happened in the last fifty pages or so. I feel like the writing just kept going and when you thought things were being resolved, it ended up they were not, and then you were right back in the midst of the teeming, complicated plot once more.
But wow, what a writer. From the first page, you are once again immersed in Ruiz-Zafon's writing style. He is so atmospheric. The Barcelona I visited some years ago, that was light and bright and full of fun architecture, is here transformed into a Gothic vision of darkness and depression and cruelty. Ruiz-Zafon is masterful at creating a sense of place in his books. He knows his way around Barcelona with his eyes closed, and the city is just as much a character in the book as anyone else.
The Angel's Game is in a different vein entirely than The Shadow of the Wind, but the same themes (and at least two characters) resonate in both. Most importantly, both novels detail the power that books can have in our lives, the voids they fill within us, and the myriad methods by which they can mold us- for better or for worse.
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229 of 241 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great Expectations, May 27, 2009
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When I first opened my copy of "The Angel's Game", I could barely wait to read it. I'd enjoyed "The Shadow of the Wind" so much that the idea of another book about books, and forbidden loves and obsession (with just the gentlest seasoning of snarky social commentary) - seemed a gift beyond measure.
And when the first page offered up the following sentence, "Don Basilo was a forbidden-looking man with a bushy moustache who did not suffer fools and who subscribed to the theory that the liberal use of adverbs and adjectives was the mark of a pervert or someone with a vitamin deficiency," my enthusiasm grew.
Which is, of course, my way of easing into my disappointment in this book. True, my expectations were too great, but while I enjoyed "The Angels' Game", I felt it took on a bit too much and lost some of the main threads that "Shadow of the Wind" wove so masterfully.
The first 2/3 of the book contained everything I was looking for. The lush descriptions of Barcelona, of the characters that inhabit her, the rising crescendo of the plot. All kept me turning the pages. Here, too, I found the most insightful comments...the ones that are spoken in a fictional 1920's Spain but seem just as fitting in today's world.
"...like all wars, was fought in the name of God and country to make a few men who were already far too powerful when they started it, even more powerful."
And even truer, "What a mess the world is in," cried the man, reading the news in his paper. "It seems that in the advanced stages of stupidity, a lack of ideas is compensated for by an excess of ideologies."
I am realizing as I go through my notes that I enjoyed these side notes almost more than the main story of the book. The main character, David Martin, is commissioned to write a book for which "people will live and die". He is set with the task of creating a basis for a new religion, and as such, looks at those that have been created before, trying to find their commonalities and the hook, if you will, that drew in the followers.
His employer in that endeavor, comes with the requisite scent of sulfur, and was very reminiscent (to me) of Robert DeNiro in "Angel Heart", fingernails and all. He also comes with a full serving of cynicism that was immensely enjoyable.
"An intellectual is usually someone who isn't exactly distinguished by his own intellect," Corelli asserted. "He claims that label to compensate for his own inadequacies. It's as old as that saying: tell me what you boast of and I'll tell you what you lack. Our daily bread. The incompetent always present themselves as experts, the cruel as pious, sinners as excessively devout, usurers as benefactors, the small-minded as patriots, the arrogant as humble, the vulgar as elegant and the feeble-minded as intellectual."
And later, "You should publish tourist guides instead of religious texts," I suggested. "It comes to the same thing, more or less."
The last 1/3 of the book, though, is where I felt it faltered. The plot becomes very wound up, the characters become less distinguishable from one another, and there is more blood spilled than seems exists in the body of the book. And the underlying draw, the idea that books, that words can have souls, that the printed page contains magic and power, seems forgotten. "...the perfume of paper and magic that strangely no one had ever thought of bottling" dissipates until it is but a memory, save for one scene near the end that feels a bit tacked on.
I love books. I love books about books. I enjoyed "The Angel's Game" but felt a different kind of sadness when I turned the last page. Instead of feeling a loss for what was finished, I felt a loss for what could have been.
I will still eagerly await the next book by Carlos Ruiz Zafon...but hope there are more "Shadows" in it than "Angel's".
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89 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mystical and beautifully written, April 25, 2009
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Anyone who has never read Zafon really should. It's rare for an author to have a way with words as he does and what makes his ability all the more amazing is the knowledge that these are works in translation. I can only imagine what a wonder his books must be in their original Spanish and his writing is so beautiful that it makes me want to learn the language simply so I can read his works in the original.
I read and loved "The Shadow of the Wind" and when my husband asked me if this book was better, I thought for a moment and told him I thought it was as good. It's hard to really judge which is better as this work is quite different from "The Shadow of the Wind".
Part of what really drew me into this work were its uncanny similarities to the works of Poe. Zafon imbues the very city of Barcelona with such menace that it seems like a beast, hulking over its inhabitants. So many of the pages are suffused with a sense of dread and there are scenes in the book that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. There are definitely more elements of the supernatural in this work than I remember there being in "The Shadow of the Wind", but that's not to say that this is a ghost story.
At its heart, this book is about obsession. Zafon delves into some pretty heavy questions about the nature of human obsessions with everything from faith and religion to literature to love. In reading about David's obsessions, it is easy for the reader to reflect on his or her own forms of obsession. Zafon has created a deeply psychological work that leaves the reader wondering just how reliable David Martin's narrative really is. How many of the horrors that he experiences are the product of his own imagination?
His characters are complex and well-drawn and they exist in varying shades of gray. Even though David is the hero, it's difficult at times to really reconcile with his behavior. He is certainly a dark hero and this is a dark novel. Zafon excels at plumbing the depths of the human psyche, at examining the question of what it is that motivates us to act as we do. Some characters are more admirable than others but very few are pure of heart. They are like actual living, breathing people--usually propelled by their own desires and their own sense of self-interest.
This is truly a very dense work, one that will leave the reader thinking long after the last page has been read. Zafon's gift is singular and he rewards his reader with a story that will stick with him or her for a long time.
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Years ago, when I began working on my fifth novel, 
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