Reading Challenge #14 - Clara Sanchez

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My Reading Challenge for the month of March asked me to “read a book at the bottom of your wish list.” Un Million de Luces, a book by Clara Sanchez, definitely was at the bottom of my reading wish list; I bought it last year, after I read The Scent of Lemon Leaves and I really liked it. Then, I read another book by the same author, and didn't like it at all (El cielo ha vuelto, 2014). So the author has got these literary ups and downs, and I never know what to expect from her books. The reviews I read online about Un million de luces were discordant, but most of them tagged it as a disappointment. Unfortunately I have to say I agree with them.

Main character of the book is Emma, a girl who manages to be hired by an important Spanish company, thanks to her ex boyfriend's help and recommendation. During the book, we witness Emma as she literally “climbs” up the huge Glass Tower, headquarters of the important company. She starts at the bottom of the tower, working as a receptionist; then, thanks to a series of happy and unhappy circumstances, she climb up and upper on the working hierarchy of the company, and she eventually becomes the general manager's personal assistant. 

As her working position becomes more and more important, Emma doesn't change at all as a person. As a character, she's really plain and bi-dimensional. She doesn't establish a connection with the reader, and she feels like a narrator telling us a story which is not hers.

During her months working in the Glass Tower she meets many characters, all of them working for the same company and playing a role more or less important in the management. She also finds out many of their secrets, some of which are related among each other, and which pretty obviously have to do with sex, betrayal, lies, hidden truths, family links. But she finds them out effortlessly, as all the characters reveal their secrets to Emma as if they're confessing some burdens they can no longer bear. Emma does not nothing but staying there, listening, and telling them to us readers in a very impersonal, flat way. And all of those confession, at the end of the book, bring us to nothing at all.

As readers, we listen to their stories, and we expect that all those secrets and lies hidden behind the shining glass of the Tower melt together and create a climax in the story, resulting in an unexpected, shocking final chapter.

But we're all going to be disappointed. Nothing happens, and when the final line is read the reader finds out that the story they just read is flat and tasteless as the main character.

I was planning to read other books by the same author, but having been disappointed twice, I think I'll stop, and looks for other titles. Let me know if you know this writer and if you like her, and share with me your current readings. I'm always looking for new suggestions!