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The Blind Man of Seville

Robert Wilson (1957 - ...)

2003

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The face.
For a dead man it was a face with presence. Like El Greco’s saints whose eyes never left you alone.
Were they following him?

Plot (spoiler alert ):
A series of murders happen in Seville, with many common traces. The victims are forced to view something, with their eye-lids or eyes taken from them. In a way, he killer forces to victims to kill themselves.

Inspector Falcón is in charge of the investigation, trying to find out who’s doing that, what is he showing to the victims, and also finding the relations between the victims.

Parallel to the investigation, Falcón is clearing the studio of his recently deceased father, a famous painter, where he starts reading his old journals. Those journals change his view about his father, who turns out to be a bisexual, paedophile criminal who fought for Fascism and the Nazis in WWII.

With the murders accumulating, the killer contacting him, and the journals showing him unexpected revelations, Falcón realizes he’s not so distant from the victims and the killer. The connections between the victims and his own father in some uncanny situations are more than a coincidence, and the development of the investigation, both for him and the murder, starts getting very personal…

My views:
The book was one of those lucky guesses that happen less than expected. The title doesn’t seem very suggestive, but for some reason it caught my attention. So I read the synopsis. It seemed like an interesting story, but nothing special. But being in a public library, I had nothing to lose, so I borrowed it.

It turned out to be a very interesting read. It starts as what it seems like an ordinary detective story, but it evolves into a disturbing journey, made by a police inspector, finding things about his father that puts him in a very personal connection with the crimes.

The mixing of the “real” story, passed in Seville, and the “flashback” story, through his father’s journals, is very well done. The characters are well explored, the description are very graphic (although, IMO, mixing Spanish terms in the middle of the narrative doesn’t really fit, even if you understand it well) and the story is appealing enough.

One thing I didn’t like that much: the ending. It seems like Wilson had some kind of deadline, and he wrote the last chapters in a hurry… It was a shame that such a well imagined and written story had such a poor ending (just my opinion, of course), but the rest is good enough to make it a book I recommend to most people. And to make me read more of his books.

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La Sombra del Viento (The Shadow of the Wind)

Carlos Ruíz Zafón (1964 - ...)

2001

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Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.

Plot (spoiler alert ):
Daniel Sempere is a young boy living in the post-war Barcelona. One day, his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a secret library filled with old, obscure books preserved by a select group of people, including Sempere’s father. As a new member, Daniel must choose one book and promise to protect him for all his life. He picks an apparently random book, The Shadow of the Wind, written by Julian Carax.

He takes the book home and only puts it down hours later, having been completely absorbed by it. Daniel tries to find other books from Carax, only to find there’s none available. When he tries to find the reason for that, he’s told the story of a man who apparently devotes his time to burn all Carax’s books.

Throughout the book, with the help of a few people, Daniel starts to discover Carax’s history, only to find that it is oddly similar to his own.

My views:
The plot above is very far from giving an overall impression of the book. I could detail a bit more, but I had to make a compromise. Either I didn’t tell anything (sort of what I did) or I had to tell nearly everything, which would take pages and pages, due to its many subplots.
In fact, this book has an intricate story, centred in Daniel and his quest for Carax. It’s interesting to see this as it develops, as we get to see, more and more, all the connections between their stories and all the episodes from Carax’s past that somehow reflect in Sempere’s life.

All the surrounding seems realistic, and the option for a post-war, dark Barcelona is very well accomplished. Zafón managed to write a vivid work, with reasonably well defined characters, despite their number. Nevertheless, I don’t think he managed to create a love/hate feeling on the readers. Sempere is not particularly loveable, nor is the “book-burner” particularly hateable. I don’t know if this is intentional, but it seems to take away just a bit of the magic, and making the ending a little too predictable.

Even though I don’t think this book in particular puts him in the level of Eco or García Márquez, to whom he has been compared several times, he definitely has the potential to do even better than this one.

So, a very good book, an enjoyable reading, and I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to read a good story.

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Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell (1903 - 1950)

1949

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Big Brother is watching you.

Plot (spoiler alert ):
The story takes place in 1984, in Airstrip One, which is the mainland of a state named Oceania. The country is ruled by the Party, headed by a figure called Big Brother. Oceania’s population is divided in three parts. The Inner Party is on top of the hierarchy, and the proles are at the bottom. Between them is the Outer Party.

Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party. His work consists in rewriting history, in the Ministry of Truth. Winston is starting to develop critical thoughts against the state of things, and so he decides to write a diary, keeping his thoughts about the Party. With that being a crime, and with his room (like any other) fully monitored, that activity turns out to be very dangerous.

Being fascinated with the past, his own in particular, Winston starts dreaming and day-dreaming about it. He can recall things back to the World War. After the War, the Party took control, implementing Doublethink – changing history to their own benefit – removing all traces of the pre-War history that could show the alternative to dictatorship to the proles.

In the Ministry of Truth, Winston meets Julia, and they begin an illegal relationship, meeting in secret places away from surveillance. Without his knowledge, he and Julia are being inspected by the Thought Police, until he is approached by Inner Party member O’Brien. Winston believes he made contact with the Resistance, after he receives a copy of “the book”, written by Goldstein, filled with an intense criticism of Ingsoc (the government’s ideology).

Winston and Julia are detained by the Thought Police and separated in the Ministry of Love, where opponents of the regime are tortured and executed. O'Brien reveals to Winston that he has been brought to be cured, subjecting Winston to several torture sessions. O’Brien explains Winston the true purpose of the tortures – not to extract a confession, but to actually change his mind. This is ultimately achieved, through torture as well as electroshock therapy. However, Winston mentions Julia's name in his sleep. In order to destroy this last trace of rebellion, O'Brien uses Winston’s great fear for rats to destroy his feelings for Julia.

At the end, Winston and Julia finally meet again, but their feelings for each other are no longer there...

My views:
With a book like this one, it’s impossible to say something new…

I think nineteen eighty-four is an interesting novel if seen just like that. Not outstanding, but nice to read.

It’s even more interesting if we also see it as a prediction of the future. Unlike many other “futuristic” books, this one has some aspects that we can clearly see in today’s world.

It becomes a great work if you add all the symbolism to it. Although the action takes place in the future, there are many elements taken from the present (post-WW2) and the past.
To begin with, the main character shares the first name with Churchill. The division of the world is also “strangely” similar to the one created during the Cold War.
Goldstein, the main threat to the Party, is a Jew (or at least has a Jewish name). Together with all the propaganda, you can clearly see a link to the Nazis in there. Or you can go to the Soviet Union – the propaganda and totalitarianism still apply. Goldstein can be linked to Trotsky.

Orwell combined all this symbolism with UK and USA’s politics. Take the rationing in the UK, take Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms (comparing them with Oceania’s four ministries) and you also have a political book, which sums up the future Orwell seen at the time.


So, is this recommended reading for everyone? I’d say so, if you’re ready to get a bit depressed. Don’t expect a happy ending, don’t expect a beautiful picture of the world, don’t expect to see hope for the future.

This book might warn about the dangers of communism. It might warn about the dangers of Nazism. Today this doesn’t apply as it did at the time, but you can easily transpose the story to the present. Replace communism with mass media. Replace the Party’s power with the immoderate power of any government. Think of technology being used, not at the service of man, but against him. Think of organized religions, and compare them with Big Brother’s infallibility, the worshiping, the lurid rallies, the conservative principles, the “Junior Anti-Sex League” or a “satanic” entity (Goldstein) as the source of all evil. Think of privacy…

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