Breakfast Book Group

The October Selection: The Angel’s Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Thanks for an especially animated discussion this morning. I always greatly enjoy our conversations, but this was one of those that left me thinking “but wait, there was this other question I had–and this other point I wanted to make!” Also, the discussion took a lot of good turns, some that I didn’t foresee, some that I would have dwelt on longer.  But it didn’t take long for our conversation to create its own momentum and flow–and then I just try to hold on….

I especially enjoyed and was enlightened by the several takes on Andreas Corelli and also what I would call the “narrative layering” of the plot. Okay, Corelli really is, on the literal level, a character in the book, but then is he only a fiction–a very serious, very real fiction–created by David’s fertile imagination? Is, as Libby suggested, the entire drama being played out in David’s psyche, since, as Grandes says toward the end, he (David) is the one having worn the brooch on his lapel the whole time? And if we consider Corelli an objectively real character (whether spirit or flesh) on the literal level, is he really out to perpetrate evil (as might seem obvious), or is his mission more like that of Satan in the Book of Job, whose name means “the accuser” and whose role is to test the faith of those seeking righteousness or believing they already have it. This is the direction that Anita was taking with Corelli’s character–that he brings David to points of conflict, choice, and decision.

Sure enough, Linda trumped us by getting here before the class met this morning. Thanks for the link, Linda; your point about Barcelona’s role in the novel rings true to me.

Thanks again, everyone, for a very fine session this morning. Okay, now what about some follow-up thoughts?