Publisher: Penguin Random House

Guest Review: The Angel’s Game

Posted September 11, 2012 by Guest Post in Crime, Guest Posts, Historical Fiction / 0 Comments

Title: The Angel’s Game (Goodreads)
Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Translator: Lucia Graves
Series: Cemetery of Forgotten Books #2
Published: Knopf Doubleday, 2008
Pages: 531
Genres: Crime, Historical Fiction
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

The Angel’s Game is the prequel to The Shadow of the Wind. This book is set in the gothic city of Barcelona in the 1900’s. It tells the story of David Martin, who one day dreams of becoming a serious writer. He gets his break when he is asked to write a fictional series under a pseudonym. Earning a modest wage, he decides buy an abandoned Tower house, which he has had his eye on for a while, but soon finds out it has a dark history. Over the years David starts to feeling unsatisfied with his writing career and decides to take a big risk and write his own novel. It was during that time that unforeseen circumstances had arisen, leaving David feel betrayed, depressed and in poor health when he is approached by mysterious French publisher who offers him a deal that will change his life forever.

This is my 2nd attempt at reading The Angel’s Game and I’m glad I made the decision to re-read it. Through this attempt I came to realise what a beautifully written book this is with a clever plot and the adorable characters that I have grown to love, which I had completely overlooked during my first read. I think part of the reason was the fact that I read it not long after reading Shadow of the Wind, which happens to be my all time favourite book. I believe my view of this book may have been overshadowed by its previous one. I desperately wanted the author to create another Shadow of the Wind and I was disappointed when it didn’t live up to my expectations.

My opinion of Cristina, David’s love interest, remained the same in both reads. I had an instant dislike to her and I couldn’t see what was so appealing in David’s eyes. She seemed a cold and distant character with no personality to her. She caused a significant amount of distress to David’s emotional state and I couldn’t see any reasoning for it.

The mystery surrounding the Tower house and Andreas Corelli was complex and strange. I felt it was not one to rush through as the answer was not spelt out to you in black and white. There were many layers, and characters that were introduced to you towards the end that I found the need to slow my pace to get the gist of what was happening. I can’t say that I could give you a definite answer, even after the 2nd read, but it made me question whether David was of sane mind and reliable? Or were the events took place due to something supernatural?Or both? Nonetheless it was extremely suspenseful and had me glued to the pages.

It is rare for me to re-read a book as I was of the opinion that I had a good memory. But going into this book again I was surprised to realise how much of the earlier parts I had completely forgotten, and they were the most entertaining, dramatic and moving parts of the book. Barcelona itself was a character all of its own. Carlos has a magical way of describing its haunting beauty and provided the perfect atmosphere to this mysterious tale. I came to adore David assistant, Isabella, who was a feisty, bossy and determined character and some of the best and light hearted moments involved the interaction between Isabelle and David. Their playful and passionate conversations and sarcastic remarks were so amusing and a pleasure to read. And I can’t go further without mentioning the wise and compassionate Senor Sempere from Sempere & Sons book shop, who knew David like no other and was a father figure. He provided him comfort at really hard time and the books to fuel his brain.

This book is an amazing story and I’m so pleased that I gave it another go with a clear and open mind. I can’t say that it is as good as The Shadow of the Wind but nonetheless it a thrilling read with many elements to it. I’m sure if I read it again I would find something new and exciting that will surprise me. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I believe it is worth reading.

Original Rating:

Re-Read Rating:

This is a guest post by Mish; when she is not reading she is busy moderating that Aussie Readers group on Goodreads. Big thanks to her for this post and doing a read a long with me of The Angel’s Game.

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Posted September 10, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Crime, Historical Fiction / 0 Comments

Title: The Angel's Game (Goodreads)
Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Translator: Lucia Graves
Series: Cemetery of Forgotten Books #2
Published: Knopf Doubleday, 2008
Pages: 531
Genres: Crime, Historical Fiction
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Carlos Ruiz Zafón takes us back to the gothic universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books with the prequel to The Shadow of the Wind; The Angel’s Game. I for one am glad to be thrown back into this world with the beautiful backdrop of Barcelona (even if there is no mention of my favourite building). Carlos Ruiz Zafón always seems to know how to give the reader a taste of everything with this series; the adventure, romance, tragedy, and the secrets and magic of books. The Angel’s Game tells the story of young writer who is approached by a mysterious man to write a book.

For anyone that’s read The Shadow of the Wind, you’ll be pleased to know this prequel will see the return of the backdrops you’ve come to know and love; including The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, Barcelona’s Raval district, and the Sempere & Sons bookshop. Also Zafón continues to blend gothic and modern storytelling to make yet again another thrilling read. If I’m comparing it to The Shadow of the Wind, sure it doesn’t hold a candle to its predecessor, but the idea to be thrown back into the same universe with a completely different story makes this book worth reading.

I love what Carlos Ruiz Zafón does with his characters; only revealing so much of these complex people and keeping so much hidden from the reader. A mystery that helps the reader to continue reading in the hope of grabbing a bit more information about this brilliant characters. The Writer David Martin was an interesting character; I really felt the struggle we went through while trying to become a literary sensation. But his love interest Cristina was the biggest downfall in this book, she was completely annoying and I hated David for showing an interest in a woman like her. My highlight character was David’s assistant, Isabella; she was a troubled girl with such a complexity and air of mystery about her that she stole the show (or book).

Overall I loved this book, it will never be The Shadow of the Wind but it was still a book that every book lover should read and it was such a joy to be back in historical Barcelona again. This was a slower paced book to its predecessor but the struggles of writing made this book for me. I did start to worry that this wasn’t going to be a true prequel but you’ll be pleased to know that Daniel; the protagonist from The Shadow of the Wind does have a role in this novel and it will all make sense in the end. Book three in this series; The Prisoner of Heaven is out now and while I’m disappointed it’s so short, I’m looking forward to reading this book too.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Posted August 30, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Book of the Month, Classic, Magical Realism / 0 Comments

Title: The Master and Margarita (Goodreads)
Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
Translator: Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear
Published: Vintage, 1967
Pages: 384
Genres: Classic, Magical Realism
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I’m going to be honest; I have no idea how to review a book like The Master and Margarita. I was looking forward to reading another Russian classic but I don’t think anyone can be fully prepared for a book like this. The whole book is based around a visit by the Devil to two passionately atheistic Russians. While this is an overly simplified synopsis it really is basis of the entire book; if I really want to write a fully detailed overview of this book it would include a black cat, an assassin, a naked witch, Jesus and Pontius Pilate in one very bizarre novel. I read this book about a week ago but I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, there is a lot going on within the book to really be able to give this a review that would give it justice.

To simplify this book I’m going to break down the book into three different elements; the Professor’s talk with the Berlioz and Bezdomny, the section involving the Master and his lover Margarita and lastly the novel about Pontius Pilate. At first glance all these sections may seems like they don’t link together, but when the Professor or the devil challenges the two’s concepts of atheism the conversation leads to the book about Pilate which happens to be a novel written by the Master and the book comes together in a weird, philosophical novel with shades of slapstick comedy.

I tend to write short reviews because I don’t want to spoil novels and want to write easy, accessible reviews; so if I write anything more about the plot I would have to write a lot, too much for a short review so I’m going to stop talking about the book and start talking about my opinions of it. While reading this novel I was completely absorbed in the writing, but this meant I continued reading without stopping to really think about the book. In the end my head was swimming with so many thoughts of this book I wasn’t sure how I felt. Now that I’ve sorted my thoughts all I really can say it’s one of those books you just have to read to fully understand the effect of it.

While it took me a while to fully sort my thoughts of this book, I really did enjoy it. It’s one of those books like Slaughterhouse-Five where you can’t really rate or review it until you have had a good long think about all the concepts this book is trying to get across. I highly recommend experiencing this novel; it is like nothing I’ve ever read before. The wacky nature of this book will keep you reading but the philosophical ideas will help you enjoy this novel. I don’t think any review will ever do justice to this classic; especially not mine so my only advice and the only thing you really need to know about this book is ‘Just read it.’

The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis

Posted August 22, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literary Fiction / 0 Comments

Title: The Informers (Goodreads)
Author: Bret Easton Ellis
Published: Knopf Doubleday, 1994
Pages: 272
Genres: Literary Fiction
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I don’t know why I keep coming back to Bret Easton Ellis; I never seem to overly enjoy his vacuous characters but something keeps drawing me back. The Informers is my forth Ellis book and this one is a collection of short stories that ultimately link together to make an overall story. Think Crash (the movie) but with shallow characters. The Informers follow the lives of several interconnected characters, they all eat at the same places, sleep with the same people and pretty much act like each other.

Each chapter is told from a different character in a first person perspective and in the end each point of view come together to make a very loosely connected story. The characters remind me a lot of Less than Zero but most of the characters in The Informers are supposed to be adults. There are a lot of conversations in this book between different characters and this is the part of the book that Bret Easton Ellis does best. He seems to be able to have a lot of conversations and still drive the plot without adding to much more and the interactions between the people seem to feel very natural.

The book feels shallow and cynical; it tries to spotlight a moral decline of Californian life. Most of Bret Easton Ellis novels feel the same, he is often called a moral satirist but I often feel like he is just a nihilist. But I still feel the need to read his books even if I don’t enjoy them (except for Imperial Bedrooms). Ellis has an interesting style and if I rate his books from worst to best, it looks like he is improving as a writer with age. This might be the fact that his books are more and more metafictional and that seems to help add depth into a book a shallow annoying characters.

The Trial by Franz Kafka

Posted August 20, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Classic / 0 Comments

Title: The Trial (Goodreads)
Author: Franz Kafka
Translator: Willa Muir
Published: Vintage, 1925
Pages: 224
Genres: Classic
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I decided to read The Trial was because I saw that next week’s lecture made reference to this book as well as Orwell’s 1984. These books weren’t required reading but I’ve read 1984 and I thought it would be a good excuse to read The Trial, because I’m pretentious like that. I really enjoyed Kafka’s The Metamorphosis so I was excited to have an excuse to read his famous unfinished novel. The Trial tells the story of Josef; a chief financial officer for a bank who finds himself being arrested and prosecuted by the authorities. The twist in the book is that the nature of his crime is never revealed to the accused or the reader.

Kafka appears to like to write philosophical novels; in The Metamorphosis he explored the idea of human identity and social acceptance. With The Trial, I get the feeling maybe this is a look at religion and the idea that life is just a big trial. Or maybe this is just an existential novel. In any case there are a lot of different aspects this book offers for exploration and these books were you can pull out different interpretations are often books I tend to love.

This is a quick read and now that I’ve read my second Kafka novel, I now understand his appeal. I’m not sure what to read next but I can’t wait to explore some more of his works. Like many classics the descriptive prose’s takes you away and you just find yourself being immersed in the story. This helps with a book that really requires your full focus.

Overall I’m satisfied with the ending of this unfinished novel, the last chapter does feel like it brings the story to an end but I can’t help but wonder where Kafka would have gone next. There was a bit of inconsistency throughout this book, with the timing and narrative but this never seemed to be a problem, it just added to the dark and gloominess of this novel. If you’ve not read Kafka, I highly recommend you give him a go, there is such a joy in reading a novel like this.

The Forrests by Emily Perkins

Posted August 16, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 1 Comment

Title: The Forrests (Goodreads)
Author: Emily Perkins
Published: Bond Street Books, 2012
Pages: 352
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

The Forrests by Emily Perkins was the book chosen for my local bookclub for June, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to this discussion so I decided to read this while in New Zealand as the author is a New Zealander. This book has already been talked about in regards to being listed for this year’s Man Booker prize (it never made the long list) so I was interested in seeing what the book was all about. The novel follows the story of the Forrests, a disenfranchised family that moves from New York City to Auckland. It follows the dramas of a family, dealing with normal every day issues; from love, marriage, motherhood and parenting to the financial issue, loneliness and a range of other issues that come with a dysfunctional family.

This book is a bit strange, you start off with all the dramas of this family and throughout the book the issues never end. While you are looking on, you never seem to be given enough information to fully understand what is happening and how the characters are feeling, like the author was always holding the full story from the reader and just expecting them to guess. Each chapter is another scene which I’ve been thrust into without being armed with the relevant information to navigate through it properly. The family dramas never really ended in this book and I just couldn’t wait to get to the end of this book.

This is a beautiful piece of writing and Emily Perkins did a decent job at capturing a family in their flaws but I didn’t enjoy The Forrests so the writing was let down by the characters. It was a bit of a dreamlike book that did grow on you a little but for me it wasn’t enough to pull me to enjoying this novel. I think some people will really enjoy this book, it starts off by putting you in the deep end and I suspect it grows on some readers, just not on me.

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Posted August 12, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Historical Fiction, Western / 0 Comments

Title: Blood Meridian (Goodreads)
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Published: Vintage, 1985
Pages: 337
Genres: Historical Fiction, Western
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I’ve wanted to read another Cormac McCarthy book after enjoying The Road so after a long time of sitting on my To-Read shelf; I decided it was about time to give Blood Meridian a go. This is probably McCarthy’s most known book; other than the Pulitzer winning The Road. Narrated by a runaway known as the “the kid”, Blood Meridian follows the Glanton gang scalp hunters as they massacred North American tribes. Judge Holden is the main antagonist and is an intelligent man but terrifying with his constant need for conflict and violence.

I often enjoy books’ aspects from history to make a compelling story; James Ellroy and Hilary Mantel come to mind when thinking of authors that do this well and now Cormac McCarthy. As an author McCarthy is rather brilliant, he knows how to spin an entertaining and intelligent story with wonderful prose for a book of intense violence and bleak environments. I’ve not read many Westerns but if this is anything to go on then I might have to read some more.

Blood Meridian has very environmental and character driven and it was a real pleasure to read. But then there is an aspect of this book that I really didn’t like. The violence and horror aspects of this book is not for the faint hearted, and I tend to enjoy these elements but even for me I feel like maybe Cormac McCarthy took it a little too far; to a sickening level. This is like reading a nightmare; the acts of violence are so intense and evil that even I was disturbed.

This book is not for everyone, it’s a hellish read and Cormac McCarthy brilliance does seem to be drowned out by the blood of Judge Holden’s victims. I couldn’t recommend this book to anyone as it is really intense, but if you think you can handle it, it’s worth reading. The book is fairly dense when comparing it to The Road, but it was still an interesting look at the disturbing nature of Judge Holden and the Glanton gang.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Posted August 5, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literary Fiction, Science Fiction / 0 Comments

Title: The Dog Stars (Goodreads)
Author: Peter Heller
Published: Knopf Doubleday, 2012
Pages: 336
Genres: Literary Fiction, Science Fiction
My Copy: ARC from Netgalley

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

The Dog Stars is really a stylised book full of interesting characters and quirks. Peter Heller’s novel is a story of a pilot who has survived a pandemic flu that has killed off most of the world’s population. He’s lost his wife and is living in a hangar of an abandoned airfield with his dog and his only neighbour is a misanthrope. He is now living in a world filled with loss, what will he risk to rediscover himself and reconnect with other survivors? Will he go against all odds just to make a connection?

This book has an interesting blend of literary fiction and dystopian adventure, it reminds me a little of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in that aspect. The characters are great in the book, with their flaws and interesting personalities. I think Peter Heller did a great job with the characters. The book at times tends to be dark and gritty which works well with the sense of the end of the world and the violence that would assume such an event. But then at times the book seems over descriptive and sometimes feels too flowery and nice which never really seemed to match this dystopian novel.

There are so many great elements in this book but there are other aspects of the book that didn’t work for me. My main problem with the narrative; it felt almost experimental, trying to do something that didn’t quite work for this style of book. It is written in a first person perspective but also written in a past tense, so you have a feeling that everything will be ok and no sense of tension throughout the novel. At times the sentence feels broken and disjointed, I’m not sure if this is an attempt to show that the narrator is unreliable but I don’t think it worked too well in this kind of novel.

The Dog Stars is a remarkably unique novel and there are some great aspects of this novel to sink your teeth into. It was a captivating and enjoyable ride; even if I had issues with the narrative and at times felt bored with the story. The characters in the novel were definitely the highlight of this book but the adventure helped move the plot along. Personally if I compare this book with Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road, I would recommend it over The Dog Stars, but this doesn’t mean you should overlook this novel.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Posted July 30, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Book of the Month, Literary Fiction / 0 Comments

Title: Life of Pi (Goodreads)
Author: Yann Martel
Published: Knopf Doubleday, 2001
Pages: 356
Genres: Literary Fiction
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

This month’s book club book was Life of Pi by Yann Martel and it seems to be one of those books that is hyped up so much that you don’t know whether to believe it or just groan at the thought of reading it. The book tells the story of Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, an Indian boy growing up and exploring spirituality at a very young age. Pi finds himself in a shipwreck which leads him to be stranded on a boat with a Bengal tiger.

The book starts off with Pi’s early years; with his dad working at a zoo, Pi discovers a lot to do with zoology and animal psychology. This aspect of the book would really appeal to animal lovers and people interested in the animal behaviour in general. Then we see Pi exploring religion and deciding he was Hindu, Christian and Islamic, which really bugged me. I really never understood why he would embrace all religions apart from the fact that he “just wants to love god.” This took up the first half of the book and I personally wanted to get past this and really get into the core part of this book; the part involving the boat and the tiger.

When the shipwreck finally came, I was expecting the book to pick up but it decided to focus more on philosophy and while I’m interested in this aspect of the book, I felt the Life of Pi had already tried to do too much already and adding this to the book was the last straw for me. There were plenty of aspects in the book that were interesting but as a whole it tried to do so much and I never felt like it achieved anything.

This book reminds me so much of The Alchemist in the sense it was very basic and it tries to talk about religion and philosophy but turns out to be incredibly overrated. I know a lot of people like both books (Life of Pi and The Alchemist) but I never connected with either, I was expecting a lot more from this but I was left waiting. It’s interesting to see books like this that seem to be either well-loved or well hated but not much in the middle. Life of Pi won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2002 and a string of other awards but for me, I felt the literary aspects were minimal, the religious and philosophical parts overdone and the book in its entirety, over hyped. I know many people love this book and if you do decide to read it, I hope you enjoy it more than I did.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Posted July 28, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literary Fiction, Magical Realism / 0 Comments

Title: 1Q84 (Goodreads)
Author: Haruki Murakami
Translator: Jay Rubin, Philip Gabriel
Narrator: Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett
Published: Knopf Doubleday, 2011
Pages: 925
Genres: Literary Fiction, Magical Realism
My Copy: Audiobook

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

This book is a bit too excessive; like most other people I think it could have had at least 300 pages removed without affecting the story. At times it gets really repetitive; like the author has thought the reader has already forgetting information about Aomame or Tengo. 1Q84 is the story of two people who meet and fall in love in school and then, many years later spend the entirety of the book trying to find each other again. As the story obviously isn’t as simple as that; it is fair to say it is very weird and probably what you expect from Haruki Murakami. I’ve not read anything else from him and I don’t pretend to understand the genre Magical Realism but this book was indeed somewhat enjoyable to read.

I mentioned that this book was everything you’d expect from Murakami and that I’ve never read anything by him before. But I do know of his works and I’ve seen the movie adaptation of Norwegian Wood so I had a decent idea of what I was getting into. But I didn’t except what I got. As the story unfolds and you get a better understanding of Aomame and Tengo, you can’t help but love these two characters with all their flaws, quirks and of course their personalities.

While this book was way too long, I am very glad to have read this book and to dive into the parallel world of 1Q84. I do feel more of a book snob for reading this and I think I will have to read some more from this weird author. For people looking for a great but odd story about two people and have a lot of time to spare, then I would suggest this is the book for you.