The Angel's Game

I just finished reading Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angels Game last night and can't resist writing about my first big disappointment in 2010. Towards the end of last year I came across 'The Shadow Of The Wind' almost by chance and picked it up on a lark. Little did I expect to get totally encaptured within the indescribable labyrinths of mystery, romance, suspense, horror, tragedy and quick witted humour expertly created by the author. Never before had I read a book like SOTW and whilst I couldn't wait to get to the heart of its mystery, I also couldn't help but wish that this wonderful book would never end! By the end of the novel, I was completely awestruck by Zafon's story telling and couldn't help talking about him in all my literary discussions with fellow book worms.

Fast forward to The Angel's Game. I greedily went and bought myself this "supposed" prequel to SOTW, in futile hopes of once again being transported back to the ancient Gothic Barcelona as described by Zafon. With hopes to devour every word written by (I think) one of the most gifted story tellers ever, I began to read this book. After reading the first 200 pages of the book rather feverishly I had to (albeit reluctantly) admit to myself that the story was going nowhere!

The main character in the novel, David Martin goes through a series of struggles and tragedies one after the other and yet fails to evoke considerable pity in the mind of the reader. However, there is no relief for Martin and the book does get a little pessimistic to read. The story proceeds at a sluggish pace and lacks the humour of its sequel. It is overly descriptive at times and its setting, characterisation and description of Barcelona are all very similar to SOTW.

As I forced myself to skim through the latter 150 odd pages of the story, the suspense never thickened, instead it grew thinner and vaguer. The book ended on a rather abrupt note, leaving the readers to make their own interpretation as to what actually happened. There were a lot of loose ends which didn't add up at all and I'm still clueless about how much of what transpired in the story was David's figment of imagination, whether Corelli was an angel or demon, what actually happened to Marscala and the book that David wrote. (Any answers ?)

This book might perhaps make for an enjoyable read for those who are yet to read SOTW. Zafon's description of the Barcelona  as the City of the Damned and the Cemetery of Forgotten Books certainly do create vivid images in the mind of the readers. The parallels and the overarching themes from both the novels are also well executed and yet the basic plot makes very little sense somehow. In all fairness, I can say that SOTW really raised my expectations from The Angel's Game and great expectations are almost always difficult to live upto!