In the realm of contemporary Gothic literature, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón comes as a surprise. It isn’t horrifying or even all that terrifying. It doesn’t have a forlorn English setting or a languid Southern Gothic feel. It doesn’t even have that dark of an ambiance, although it certainly has elements of darkness. And yet Zafón manages to create a very unique and well-written Gothic novel.
Plot
The story, set in Barcelona in 1945, concerns Daniel, a young man who’s struggling with the loss of his mother and his fear that he can no longer remember her face. To console him, his father takes him to an enormous hidden labyrinth, The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where books that no one remembers or loves any longer are housed. He tells him to choose a book, one book that he will treasure for the remainder of his life.
He chooses a book, reads it, and finds that it touches him deeply. So much so that he longs to find every other book that the author, Julián Carax has written. The only problem is that all of Carax’s novels have been pulled off of the shelves by some unknown person and burned. And Carax is missing.
From that point on, Daniel embarks on a journey to discover Carax’s history and the reason for his missing novels. It isn’t long though before a shadowy figure begins to lurk outside his window and to follow his footsteps through the streets of Barcelona, someone who would prevent Daniel from uncovering the truth.
Theme
This book is part coming-of-age novel, part mystery. But it deals with so much more, all of which is encapsulated in the title, The Shadow of the Wind. Of course, the novel dwells on the beauty of books and their importance in the lives of those they touch. But simultaneously, it also presents the ephemeral role that any author’s work holds in the sands of time. No matter how much his work touches those who read it, it’s bound to be forgotten, lost like the shadow of the wind, an intangible substance that can’t be seen or known.
And yet there’s still a beauty to that moment. Though the books might be forgotten, like those of Carax, the extent to which they impact those who read them and the relationships that are forged because of them – between fathers and sons or between two young lovers – are the lasting legacy that the author leaves.
In addition, the book deals heavily with relationships. Daniel has a beautiful but complex relationship with his father; a charming, comedic friendship with Fermín Romero de Torres, a beggar with a past; a friendship/ childhood crush on the beautiful blind girl, Clara; and a passionate, intimate love for Bea Aguilar, the sister of his closest friend. Each of these relationships is multi-faceted, full of joy and pain, sometimes even hatred.
These relationships, though they may pass away and seem to be gone forever, like Daniel’s mother and his memory of her face, still leave an indelible mark on the lives of those who loved them. Like the mark of an author, or a given book, Zafón explores the extent to which those people whom we know and love – though their time in our life may be nothing but the shadow of the wind – shape us into the person we become.
This is a Gothic theme – an exploration of an irrational, spiritual theme – albeit handled so subtly and deftly that the reader absorbs it without even noticing its presence…much like the shadow of the wind.
Style
Because of the heavy emphasis given to the characters and their relationships with one another, and due to the lyrical, almost poetic way in which Zafón writes, the book reads like literary fiction. Don’t expect the fast pace of Mexican Gothic, with its plot twists and shocking revelations. And don’t look for the classic English-feeling contemporaries like The Thirteenth Tale or The Little Stranger.
If anything, the story is actually extremely poignant. As we follow Daniel’s coming-of-age, we watch the story of a young boy who’s learning to love, to relate to his father as a man rather than a child, and to seek out the answers to the mysteries that surround his life. After all, his search for Carax’s history and his lost novels is really just a search for his memory of his mother. Of course, the answer to both is right before his eyes, but it’s an answer he isn’t prepared to receive until the end of the story.
Tropes
In true Gothic fashion, Zafón uses several tropes to support his theme.
Old Estate
The first is, surprise, surprise, an old, decaying home: the Aldaya mansion. However, his use of the home is unique to the genre. No one currently lives there. It’s boarded up, discarded by the family who have fled Barcelona and the memories that reside there. The home, like the theme itself, represents the fleeting memory of the one person, Penélope Aldaya, whom Julián Carax truly loved, a love that is now nothing but shadows.
Weather
The second is weather. In a couple of recent posts, I wrote about the use of both fog and dark & stormy weather to elucidate a Gothic theme. Weather is powerful. And Zafón uses the weather in The Shadow of the Wind to his advantage. He uses both heavy rain and wind, often separately, but also sometimes together.
In my post on dark and stormy weather, I mentioned Zafón’s use of the weather at the midpoint when Daniel’s and Bea’s relationship takes a very significant turn. At that point he writes,
The storm didn’t wait until nightfall to show its teeth. The first flashes of lightning caught me by surprise shortly after taking a bus on Line 22. (p. 228)
Shortly after these two lines, Daniel meets his young love, Bea in the old abandoned Aldaya house. There he loses his virginity and, though he may have had some adolescent hopes beforehand, it certainly caught him by surprise. Much like the lightning. The lightning is a wonderful parallel to his upcoming experience. Shocking, eye-opening, electric.
But lightning is transitory, there one moment and gone the next. It may scorch upon impact, leaving a permanent burn, but it is otherwise nothing but a memory. Still, its searing heat is memorable. As is Daniel’s experience with Bea. It is something that can never truly be repeated: a first. But it still leaves its mark. Like an artist’s impact or a lost relationship, it changes us but without establishing any permanence in our lives.
The Figure in the Shadows
Earlier I alluded to the shadowy figure who follows Daniel, haunting his journey of discovery. At some point he encounters the figure and finds him to be a terribly scarred man. There’s something of a Gothic monster in this character. In a way he’s an antagonist in that he represents the opposite of all that Daniel seeks to gain.
Whereas Daniel searches to remember his mother, to uncover Carax’s past, and to hold fast to the mark that this unforgettable author left on the world, the shadowy figure would erase all of these. He seeks to burn the past so that that the thin shreds that still remain are lost with all of those things that he can never recover.
He represents the idea that our history is nothing but a passing effect – a true shadow of the wind – that alters us in no way. But he is, of course, wrong. Everything we encounter, every relationship that we hold, though it would be in only the fleeting way or for the briefest span of time, shapes us. Daniel proves that for himself, standing opposed to this figure that lurks in the darkness.
Conclusion
The Shadow of the Wind is a brilliant look at those things that seem lost to us but are not. Zafón understands the heart of Gothic writing and utilizes several Gothic tropes to explore a very Gothic theme in a unique approach to the genre.
I was thoroughly impressed.