24th June 2010
Mixed views on the Shadow of The Wind the other night. A smaller gathering than usual (Neil, Mark Th and Will absent), and Chris, Ras and Steve yet to finish. Much of the discussion was about the style of the writing, with disagreement about whether it worked or not. In particular, there was a view that it was an 'adolescent' book in its style (particularly from Richard), which accounted for strong recommendations to read it having come from people in their late teens/early twenties. This view was not shared by some others (notably myself, arguing there was a difference between a book being significantly set in the context and perspective of about someone at that stage in life (e.g. falling in love at the drop of a hat and wanting to shag any willing female) and it thus being an adolescent book. A consensus was not reached on this...
Beyond this, the limited number of people who had finished the book meant that there was limited in depth discussion - even about the translation. Essentially there were two views - one already articulated by Neil in his email, which could perhaps be summarised as 'it promised more than it ultimately delivered', and the other from Mark T and myself (and subsequently from Mark TH., that it told a good, almost engrossing story with interesting characters. There was also some discussion about the Gothic nature of the book and again some difference of opinion about whether or not the fact that some elements of what happened stretched the boundaries of credulity (it was not annoying vs surely that is part of the point of a gothic novel). On such points, Neil's complaint about brain scans being too early for the technology was roundly disabused by our resident eminent medical technician from the RUH. Also, why was it always raining in Barcelona?
6.01
