Marina, a novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (book review)

Hello readers and fellow bloggers! In this post, I shall review Marina, a gothic novel by Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I read it a few months ago, but haven't got around to reviewing it sooner. Anyhow, this was my second novel by this author, the first one was The Shadow of the Wind.  I've been meaning to read more Zafon works ever since I read and loved that first one, and I'm happy I finally got the chance to read another book of his. Marina certainly did not disappoint. Published in 1999, this genre defying novel offers much food for the thought and a gripping plot. The author himself was very attached to this work of art, calling it perhaps the most personal of his work. I can certainly see why the author feels that way, because many questions Marina the novel asks are deeply human, and therefore I imagine they will always feel personal for many of us. Still, I imagine there was more to it that made it deeply personal for the author Carlos Zafon. Perhaps Carlos had put a bit of himself in the young protagonist Oscar, capturing what growing up in Barcelona felt like. Art is always autobiographical in some ways; every artist puts himself in his work. Nevertheless, I felt like the author wanted and succeeded to raise some very serious questions about the human nature, and the choice between the good and evil in this novel. Perhaps it is why Marina was one of Zafon’s most personal books.  Marina captured what perhaps mattered to Carlos, what storytelling was to him. 

If you look at the quote below, you'll see what I mean. The author suggests we are only defined by our actions, and that we should come to terms with our mortality, at least when it comes to mortality of our flesh. This might seem obvious, of course, as human beings we live and die, but have a look at the materialistic consumerist society we live in, the society that desperately tries to forget its mortality and tried to entertain itself with shallow things, and see whether we not need to be reminded of it. We live and die, but our choices are what remains. Choices for good, or evil. It is up to us to decide. 

“Our body begins to destroy itself from the moment it is born. We are fragile. We’re creatures of passage. All that is left of us are our actions, the good or the evil we do to our fellow humans.” Cited from Marina, a novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

What kind of novel is Marina? Is it gothic horror? A historical mystery? A young adult paranormal romance? Is it all of the above?  Some sources cite it as a young adult novel, and it could be labelled as such, since it features an adolescent protagonist Oscar and focuses on his personal development, so it is in some ways a bildungsroman.

 

“Sometimes, the things that are the most real only happen in one's imagination, Oscar, she said. We only remember what never really happened.”

 The publishers tend to market it more as ‘a novel for all ages’ nowadays for obvious reasons. The more readers, the wider the market,  the better for the publishers, right? Still, I think there is more depth and complexity to this novel than a typical YA book, so I don’t think it’s just a publishers’ trick. It certainly makes no sense to limit Marina to young adults. I don’t even think Marina is appropriate for very young readers, due to its macabre tone and at times morbid plot developments. 

As the novel develops into two parallel stories, one of these stories becomes increasingly gloom, violent, dark and graphic to the point of being morbid. It is not constantly morbid and dark, it develops like a mystery, you know slowly but as it rushes towards its finish its gets darker and darker. Marina is sometimes described as a gothic horror novel, and at times it really is.

 As I said, the narrative follows two stories, one is a story of friendship and love between the two adolescents, and the other is a rather morbid mystery that reads a lot like the famous Frankenstein novel. I mean that as a compliment, as I'm a big fan of Frankenstein and I consider it one of the best British novels of all times. The reason why I'm bringing up that comparison is because the question of bringing the dead to life is a big question in this novel. I would not call Marina a straightforward horror novel any more than I would Frankenstein. For me Frankenstein is also a hard novel to define, besides being acknowledged as one of the principal if not the foundation works of Gothic horror, this novel is also a psychological tragedy and one of the first science fiction novels.  Similarly, Marina is a novel that wears many hats. I guess the ultimate definition depends on the reader, because we all might define it differently or focus on different aspects of Marina. 

Personally, Marina feels more more a historical bildungsroman mystery with elements of paranormal horror, then just a horror novel as such. The horror element is not overwhelming, nor is the gore. The novel does get very graphic and violent towards the end, there are deaths and visceral violence, but on overall the gore is still minimal. Still, I’m not sure that the young adult is even a suitable description for some parts of this novel, despite the teenage protagonists. It is perhaps a novel best suited for an adult reader, due to the seriousness of its themes. On overall, Marina is not for very young readers, I wouldn't advise it to anyone younger than fifteen. 

The novel opens with the protagonist Oscar saying : "Marina once told me that we only really remember what never really happened. It would take me a lifetime to understand what those words meant. "

So, immediately the first two sentences tell us that Marina is someone important to the narrator protagonist, someone whose words the protagonist has remembered and it took him a long time to understand. So, Marina is someone who is wise or thoughtful, or that is at least implied, that he had to grow as a person to be able to interpret her words. As readers, the first two sentences also make us understand that the protagonist is someone with his lifetime almost behind him (for it took him a lifetime to understand what Marina meant). In fact, the protagonist Oscar will narrate his own life, that is the young part of his life, his adolescent years- and tell us about the defying person of his adolescence- Marina. This is, right away, revealed in the third sentence: "But I suppose that I better start at the beginning, which is in this case the end. " We know that the protagonist Oscar is going to narrate his story to us. What kind of story it is? Well it is about his disappearance but also about Marina, and the ending he talks about, that is also a beginning, is the end of his hiding but also of one part of us life (as we will learn later). The fourth and the fifth sentence reveal all of this to us: "In May 1980 I disappeared from the world from the entire world. For seven days and seven nights nobody knew my whereabouts."  The author goes on to explain how everyone looked from him, from teachers to friends, to police, and he was in the end found by a plainscloth policeman- because Oscar was ready to be find.

So, the old Oscar tells us the story of the young Oscar. It's a sort of a framed narrative, but the narrator is the same, he just travels back in time, that is remember his younger years. Who is Oscar? An intelligent, sensitive and curious boy who lives in a boarding house. When Oscar wonders around Barcelona, entering 'forgotten gardens' and decaying houses and villas,  he comes across someone- and this meeting changes his life forever. When Oscar meets Marina, he is immediately smitten. Love at first sight, you could say. The two soon become friends, and seem to be kindred flames. They will solve a mystery together. However, I'm getting a bit head of myself. Still, you can see why Oscar was so enthusiastic about joining Marina in solving a mystery. 

“Do you like mysteries?” I nodded. I think if she’d asked me whether I liked arsenic or cyanide on toast I would have given her the same answer.

Who is Marina? She is also fifteen and her family history is somewhat tragic. She lives in a historical villa that is basically in ruins. Aristocrats are looked down upon at this stage in history, and her father seems to be a bit of both, a once renown painter who is now impoverished.  Marina seems to embody history in herself, despite being a fifteen year old girl. She is wise beyond her years. Marina seems like one of those individuals who were struck by sadness and grief, but managed to learn from it, rather than to be broken by it. Her empathy enables her to understand that every story is worth hearing and understanding, that every story is worth telling. Perhaps Oscar intuitively senses this, and it is what makes him follow Marina on their journey of discovery that leads them from one danger to another, that makes them open graves, frequent graveyards and storm into laboratories. 

"' There's nothing here. Nothing at all.'

Marina gave me a look that I could not fathom.

'You're wrong,' she said. 'The memories of hundreds of people lie here. Their lives, their feelings, their expectations, their absence, the dreams that never came true for them, the disappointments, the deceptions and the unrequited loves that poisoned their existence... All that is here, trapped for ever.'”

Marina Bleu is a beauty. There seems to be something tragic about her beauty, and there is. Her description made me think of Dorian Gray, with her blue eyes and hair. Is there an influence of Oscar Wilde here? If there a reference? Besides the name of the protagonist of the novel being Oscar? I think there might be. For Marina is a half orphan, her mother died, just like the mother of tragically beautiful Dorian Gray. Marina now lives with her father, who used to be a great painter. Germán Blau is his name, and he seems to take a liking to Oscar after a while, or at least approves of their friendship.  Marina's father is described quite romantically, as once great artist who was crushed by the death of his beloved wife and only lives for his daughter. As the novel progressed, I liked him more and more. At first he seems almost like a ghost, with his white hair and painter's hands. In connection with Marina's father, there were also some interesting conversations about art in this novel that I obviously enjoyed, being somewhat of a painter myself. 

The plot basically opens at the end of September 1979 in Barcelona, and the story sort of ends in 1980 when Oscar is find, but since it is a narrative within narrative, there is also his life that followed after that point, that we are not privy into for this novel focuses on his adolescent years. Oscar narrates two parallel story lines, and the two are interwoven. He and Marina are principal characters in both of them, and their actions drive the plot in a way, even if one story line is all about them, and the other is about two other people. What is the main story? Are they equal? These two stories are parallel and take equal space in the narrative. I'm not sure is there a main story, but there are main characters are they are Marina and Oscar. The story of their friendship is very well played out and it becomes a part of the plot. With time this friendship slowly develops into love, but it is all very platonically done. Oscar's life changed when he meets Marina, but so does her. At start, Marina is more than a bit mysterious, but with time we learn more about her. Their relationship changes both of their lives in more than one way. It also influences the lives of others. 

Marina and Oscar embark on an adventure when they try to discover the identity of a certain veiled lady who frequents graveyard at a certain date and time, always dressed in black. Marina takes Oscar  the cemetery of Sarriá and after witnessing the woman in question, they try to find out more about her. Through the novel, there are many mentioning of death, and there is a tone of seriousness, and a warning that seems to be repeated:

“The territory of humans is life. Death does not belong to us.”

Why is this warning repeated? Well, that has to do with the mystery they have to solve, and the mystery revolves around the mysterious veiled lady and Mijail Kolvenik. It is in his life that the answers need to be find. Mijail is a tragic figure in many ways. He had a difficult and painful childhood, but he managed to raise above it or so it seems. The more Oscar and Marina dig into his life, the more mysteries they find. At start, Mijail seems to have fallen from the sky, or at any rate, it is very hard to find any information on him. It is only later in the story that the answers start to add up, and that they learn the details of his childhood and so on. Still, a general feeling of sadness and tragedy follows Kolvenik from the start. 

Some things about Kolvenik are wide known, namely that he was rich, that he was a genius, and that he helped handicapped and deformed individuals. There is a doctor Shelley Marina and Oscar visit, his former partner, but he does not want to reveal much about their joined work operations. 

“The night I met him [he] told me that, for some reason, life usually grants us what we are not looking for. He was given wealth, fame, and power, yet his soul yearned only for spiritual peace so that he could silence the shadows in his heart...”

Shelley was Kolvenik's best friend ever since he saved him on one occasion and recognized his genius. Shelley praises Kolvenik but it is evident he hides information about him from Oscar and Marina. The view on their relationship (between Kolvenik and Shelley), and their relationship changes through the novel. The old doctor Shelley has a daugher named Maria Shelley, who is in her early thirties. Do I need to point out who this Maria Shelley is the reference to? Mary Shelley, obviously. The Frankenstein reference is very suitable, for like the scientist who created the creature (as it is known to those who have actually read the book), Kolvenik was also trying to help. Help others and help himself. The fear of death drives people to do terrible things. 

“To him, nature was a merciless beast that fed on its young without caring about the fate of the beings it harboured.”

I must say that Kolvenik makes for a fascinating character. The more they discover about him, the more interested they become. They find photographs with deformed people, and doctor Shelley explains Kolvernik and he were helping these people. However, Kolvenik's demise was due to human envy. A lot of people were envious of Kolvenik, so they tore him down. There is also a tragic love story that plays into this. 

“People tend to become wary of individuals like him because their brilliance reminds them of their own mediocrity. Envy is a blind man who wants to pull out your eyes.”

 In particular, Mijail Kolvenik was amazing when it came to inventing, making and creating orthopaedical devices and medical prosthesis. However, Kolvenik's ambitions go further than they should, and border on obsession. He strives to correct all errors of nature, but at what cost? He wants not only to fix deformations, but to abolish them, to abolish death itself. Yes, Kolvenik aspires to overcome the death itself. He has a secret, a genetic illness that is slowly killing him.  Tired of genetic degeneration that deforms and atrophies him, Kolvenik reconstructs his body before the illness entirely consumes him.

“I tend to believe that the place into which fate decides to drop us doesn't really say much about us. It certainly does not make us better or worse. At best, it just seems to provide a set of circumstances and a hand of cards with which to engage in the poker game of life. We forge our own identity, our worth or shame, as we go, as we play the cards and try to become a fairly decent version of ourselves. The train is the same for us all; we just get on at different stations.” Quoted from Marina, the novel by C.R.Z

In many ways, Marina is quite a didactic and meditative text. The plot is there, and it is well written, it captures the reader, but  when it is all said and done, Marina is not all about the plot. At least that is what I felt, that the plot serves to put forward the eternal message about our personal responsibility when it comes to choosing between the right and wrong. Sometimes Marina felt plot driven, as Oscar and Marina were trying to solve with mystery with the stakes getting every higher, but all in all was it ever really about the plot?  The writer Carlos R. Zafon stops the narrative to meditate on life and ponder eternal questions. I think a lot of readers will find themselves nodding on Carlos’ remarks and meditations about life.

“Legions of men, butchered for the greater glory and the profit margins of bankers, chancellors, generals, stockbrokers, and other fathers of the nation, had been maimed and ruined for life in the name of freedom, democracy, the Empire, the race, or the flag.” *Quoted from the novel

Nevertheless, Marina is an easy novel to read and follow. The writing style is simple enough, if quite poetic and atmospheric at times. Carlos is known for his poetical writing style. At the same time, Carlos is sometimes quite funny. This novel is not devoid of Zafon’s signature humour, even if generally speaking the tone of the novel is quite serious and melancholic.  Even when it appears, it is a bit toned down, perhaps because the protagonists are young adult that is adolescents. In other words, there is no cheeky humour in this novel, it’s all very prim and proper. 

“A good friend once told me that problems are like cockroaches,” he said in the joking tone he used when he wanted to say something serious. “If you bring them out into the light, they get scared and leave.”*

The narrative is pretty straightforward, but we also get to see things from other people's point of view, we get to hear their voices and read their letters. So, we do get a bit of mini framed narratives that still fits into the main narrative of Oscar Drai, but it also drifts from it. As novel progresses, Oscar and Marina start to feel more like detectives. As Marina and Oscar follow different trails, they meet and interview people, talk to them and ask question. Often the information is partial and seems a part of a puzzle. Little by little, Marina and Oscar learn more. They never give up, despite the danger, despite the smell of death that follows them, despite knowing that someone watches them and is probably trying to kill them, they go on exploring graveyards, houses, mansions and so on. The writer also tells us story by introducing us to minor characters who then tell their own stories, and somewhere somehow all of these stories start to connect. Oscar and Marina go on,  sometimes they find letters, sometimes they get anonymous papers, they read letters and try to piece together information. As readers, the information comes to us through dialogues, through spoken and written words of minor characters- and sometimes through their confessions.  

One of these minor characters is Victor, a policeman who worked on the case Oscar and Marina are trying to crack. His 'confession' was a bit part of  the plot, and he is the first person to really get involved in the work Oscar and Marina are doing. 

“If retirement requires a certain degree of peace of mind and an easy conscience, Victor Florian did not appear to have much of either. He held an unlit cigar in his mouth and had more hair in each eyebrow that most people have on their head.”

Then there is also Eva, a tragic heroine, a lady in black. How is her life connected to Mijail Kolvenik ? You'll have to read the novel to find out. However, I will say that Eva's story was the saddest one to read and it touched me the most. A life filled with endless tragedy.  At times, it felt like a little too much even. What to say of Maria Shelley as well? She is revealed not to be daughter of doctor Shelley at all. There are many plots and twists in this novel, and they all go back to Eva. 

Finally, there is a secret Marina herself hides. A secret that will change all of their lives forever. Besides the mystery plot involved Eva (the lady in black) and Mijail Kolvenik, Marina's personal secret is another plot, the other story. Basically, Marina and Oscar's friendship, that blossoms into love, is what this novel is all about. I did not write much about that, and I won't. It sort of develops parallel with the story these two adolescent, and it feels credible. I don't want to say more to avoid spoilers, but I will say that I really loved these two young people. 

Now, let's examine the downsides. Is there anything I did not like about Marina, this hard to define novel? Well, I found the contrast between the prim and proper relationship of Marina and Oscar odd, compared to the gore and the abuse experienced by other character and described. There were also some blank spaces. I feel like we don't learn that much about Marina and Oscar's inner thoughts or their childhood. As the novel progresses, as readers we can see these two are obviously in love, but there is not so much as a description of a kiss. I know that the novel is labelled as young adult, but still, aren't they allowed to share a kiss? At the same time, some parts of the novel speak of horrible things, there is violence, murder, abuse of all kind. So, how is that appropriate to read if it is young adult? I don't know, the 'prudeness' of Oscar and Marina's relationship seemed a bit extreme. Not that I expected them to be physically together, but I think it would be normal to have them describes as hugging or enjoying each other physical vicinity in some way. It was all so ethereal, and it is not specified why. In some ways, it makes sense with the later developments in the novel, but it does not make sense altogether. I mean they are teenagers. They are going to have fantasies, if nothing else. It would have been nice to see them be teenagers a bit more often. Often these two seemed very adult and mature, like they were in their twenties. I know it is not easy to write adolescent characters, and on overall these two were very likeable, but still not perfect. Never mind. 

Another thing I didn't like is that some minor characters seemed like cardboard villains, namely the guardians of Eva. I didn't go much into it in my review, because I'm trying to avoid big spoilers, but too much is too much. Besides Marina and Oscar, the other characters are not that well developed, and that is alright since they are not principal characters. Still, it would have been nice to get a better sense of some of them. I think we get a good view into the main tragic villain of this novel and he is well portrayed. Illness does horrible things to people, and I found his descent into madness convincing. Still, maybe I would have enjoyed to see a few more tender moments with him described, just to humanize him more. Towards the end, he really seems like complete a monster. I won't reveal who he is, but maybe you would have figured it out yourself.

All in all, I really enjoyed this novel. Any flaws it might have are all minor. Some parts of it were a bit too dark for my taste, but I can also find justification for it, and they add to the warning message of the book. I do think there is a message to this novel, and personally I like that. This book really captivates, and it has captivated me. The plot is captivating, the characters are likeable, there is really little to complain about. 

“My friend Oscar is one of those princes without kingdom who wander around hoping you'll kiss them so they won't turn into frogs. He gets everything back to front and that's why I like him. People who think they get everything right do things wrong, and this, coming from a left-handed person, says it all. He looks at me and thinks I don't see him. He imagines I'll evaporate if he touches me and if he doesn't touch me, then he'll evaporate. He's got me on such a high pedestal he doesn't know how to get up there. He thinks my lips are door to paradise, but doesn't know they are poisoned. I am such a coward that I don't tell him so as not to lose him. I pretend I don't see him, and that I am, indeed, going to evaporate...
My friend Oscar is one of those princes who would be well advised to stay away from fairy tales and the princesses who inhabit them. He doesn't know he's really Prince Charming who must kiss Sleeping Beauty in order to wake her from her eternal sleep, but that's because Oscar doesn't know that fairy tales are lies, although not all lies are fairy tales. Princes aren't charming, and sleeping beauties, however beautiful, never wake up from their sleep. He's the best friend I've ever had and if I ever come across Merlin, I'll thank him for having placed him in my path.”

What I liked most about Marina might be  how it examines the very human fear of death. It speaks about grief, and it does it in a very sensitive and intelligent way. This is not a superficial novel, in many ways it really digs deep. It shows us our very human fear of losing our loved ones. It is a fear we must confront, sooner or later. It is a paint we must experience. To know love, is to know fear of losing love.

No matter how much we might believe in life after death, that final parting always breaks our heart. No matter how strong the faith, it still hurts to loose someone we love. To think that we will never see them again. To realize that we will never hear the sound of their laugh. To know that we will never heart them start a sentence with : "You know, ...". To know we don't have someone to talk to.

Not every loss is the same. It hurts to lose anyone we care about. However, some losses are absolutely life shattering. They can break people. They can make them to lose hope. Ultimately, we often depend one on another. No matter what the modern society tells us, not everyone can be replaced. 

Some sorrows run deep. Some losses cannot be fixed, there is a void that follows us until the end of our lives. We have to trust into the reality after this life. We have to accept the fact that our body will come to an end. The sooner, the better.  We cannot escape death. We can try to make the right choices, to choose the good over the bad. Know that what matters in the eternity is the choices we make today and tomorrow. 

Some old illustrations that show my posing style is predictable vs my outfit (Floral maxi dress: second hand, hat: old, red bag: gifted, printed sandals: art, old)

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