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Aug 30, 2011

MJ rated it:

You are about to read Mark Nicholls’s review of Italo Calvino’s postmodern classic If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller. You might want to position yourself in a comfortable chair before you begin, or place a cushion behind your back, as we know how arduous it can be to read things off the internet. You might also care to prepare a coffee, a light snack, or to switch a light on before beginning.

You might be thinking that this review is not going to interest you, since book reviews on b More...

31 comments like (62 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2009

Choupette rated it:

When I was 17 I saw an exhibition of Yves Klein (corps, couleur, immatériel) at Beaubourg in Paris. As I stood in front of his blue monochromes, I felt as if I was standing in front of a hole in the surface of the universe, a rupture in the fabric of space-time. And my life changed perceptibly.

From that moment on, I began to think about art in terms of three poles (in my mind they're like magnetic poles emanating electromagnetic waves and doing cool stuff with each other): the artist More...

39 comments like (66 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2011

Kinga rated it:

I say this is what happened:
Italo Calvino was suffering from a writer's block. He would start a novel, get it to its first curve and abandond it before the resolution. A few months later he would start another with a similar result. Finally, his publishers got impatient because it had been years since the last novel and they said:
'Italo, get your shit together! We need a new book. Now!'
Italo panicked and did the only thing he could think of. He glued all his failed attempts tog More...

14 comments like (29 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2011

Teresa rated it:

I'm not the kind of person to define myself. Of course, I know I'm a daughter, sister, wife, etc and most importantly, a mother. But besides my relationship to other people, if I'm 'forced' to think about what defines me, what I know I've always been, as far back as I can remember, is a Reader. And if you are the same, then, like me, you will feel that Calvino is speaking to you -- you are his You.

I can't say there weren't very brief times when my attention wandered during one of More...

18 comments like (16 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2012

Bettie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

18 comments like (8 people liked it)

May 15, 2011

Marvin rated it:

I arrived at the library with my two books in hand. As I plunked them down on the check-in counter, a thin matronly woman approached.

"Would you like to check these books in?"

"Yes I would but I would also like to..."

"Oh, I see you read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino."

"Yes I did. Have you read it too?"

"On starting the first few pages, you were put off by what appears to be a More...

5 comments like (23 people liked it)

Sep 29, 2007

Jessica rated it:

My head thought it liked this book -- terrific beginning -- but apparently my heart had other ideas, because I got about halfway through and just never got around to finishing it. The thing's still sitting on my "active" shelf, looking smug, and reminding me that when it comes to affairs of the book, I can be a little bit dumb, and a lot flakey.

I don't know. In my defense, I'm not so crazy about most "tricky" fiction, for the same reason that I don't like particip More...

4 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2011

K.D. rated it:

My first book by Italo Calvino and it was an amazing read. Calvino's format is one of a kind. He alternately narrated the chapter in second person (he tells you what you are doing as a Reader) and the first chapter of different novels. Some of those first chapters eerily resembles what is happening in the second-person chapters.

This book was originally published in 1979 in Italian and its English translation came out 3 years after. Considering that this was originally written in a fo More...

4 comments like (10 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2011

Nate rated it:

Read-read, September 2011 :: Well, my Other Reader just tore through this little masterpiece and reminded me of how thoroughly perfect it was. And so, despite a sack of new library books to peruse, I will temporarily lay aside the Thrill of Beginning a New Novel and instead spend a couple days basking once again in this splendid construction of highly active design and imagination.

I think it is safe to say that this has moved out of the pile of
-Books I Have Read and Loved
More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 14, 2008

Yulia added it

You want to write a story about a reader, whom you call you, but you also want to write about a female reader, whom you also call you, and you want you and you to interact, leading to some technical challenges, and you want you, the reader of this book, to remain interested all the while in the stories in each other chapter of the book that are meant to be part of another book that has an ever-shifting identity, much a you do. ah, but how do you keep yourself interested? How do you write about More...

10 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2012

umberto rated it:

I was saddened whenever I came across my missing review like this one. It's a pity, thus I consoled myself by thinking it's a fate of mine or Fortune itself. However, I wonder how I can recall all information or some ideas written some years ago since it's unthinkable such recorded reviews here can be lost and gone for ever.

Therefore, my GR friends please keep cool, I don't want to annoy anyone since I respect all of you as my reading scholars. As for this magnificent novel, I didn't More...

11 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2008

Leah rated it:

Italo Calvino's book, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, begins by assaulting the reader:

"You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others right away, "No, I don't want to watch TV!" Raise your voice--they won't hear you otherwise--"I'm reading! I don't want to be d More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2007

Jason rated it:

I would probably give this book a higher rating if I had not read any of Calvino's other works, but I found it inferior to The Non-Existent Knight and the Cloven Viscount. All of Calvino's works challenge reader expectations, but here he goes one step too far in putting form over substance.

While I suspect most reviewers would consider "If on a winter's night a traveler" a bold expirement, it is really the most logical step after modernism. Where modernism was concerned to More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Mar 23, 2007

oriana rated it:

One of my all time most beloved books. Showing that, though there may be nothing new under the sun, there are still some unbearably brilliant writers that can make something seem shockingly original.

There are two narratives in this book, one which is in 2nd person, so that You, the Reader, become the protagonist. So You are reading the newest book by Italo Calvino, when You suddenly turn the page to find that another book's text has been mistakenly inserted in the middle of the sto More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 17, 2009

Branduno rated it:

You are starting to read Branduno's review of Italo Calvino's If On A Winter's Night A Traveler. But something is stopping you. Perhaps you are on a library's public computer and the staff are telling you to hurry up, get out, there is a waiting list. Or maybe it is more peaceful: you are at home, sitting down to your own laptop. But your elderly uncle has just started to loudly play Wii in the next room. You can't take it.

"Be quiet!" you yell. "I am about to start readi More...

3 comments like (17 people liked it)

Apr 09, 2011

Saman added it

ایتالو کالوینو (۱۵ اکتبر ۱۹۲۳ - ۱۹ سپتامبر ۱۹۸۵) یکی از بزرگ‌ترین نویسندگان ایتالیایی قرن بیستم است
بسیاری از آثار وی به زبان فارسی ترجمه شده‌است. او نویسنده، خبرنگار، منتقد و نظریه‌پرداز ایتالیایی است که در سال ۱۹۲۳ به دنیا آمد و فضای انتقادی آثارش باعث شده او را یکی از مهم ترین داستان نویس‌های ایتالیا در قرن بیستم بدانند
در سال ۱۹۸۱ نشان افتخار فرانسه به او اعطا شد
او بر اثر خونریزی مغزی در سیه‌نا چشم از جهان فرو بست

آثار داستانی
۱۹۴۷ راه لانه‌ي عنکبوت
More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2007

jeremy rated it:

For those with an amorous affair with books, this may, perhaps, be the ultimate love letter to the reader. Calvino's novel, or more precisely, his book of ten interrelated stories, is both masterfully created and startlingly unique. Told alternately in second and third persons, the book is a fascinating exploration of the relationship between the author and the reader. Flawlessly composed, the novel weaves together seemingly unrelated tales, all of which relate directly to you, the reader. At More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2009

Logan rated it:

I can not think of a book that has let me down more than Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler. Admittedly, this may have been caused by in no small part by my high expectations for this novel after having read the deliriously exciting first chapter several times in a bookstore during one of those quite regular hunts for the next book to steal my heart. I mean, who can resist a first chapter that contains paragraphs like:

"In the shop window you have promptly identi More...

17 comments like (10 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2007

Aaron rated it:

In the future, when all the books that have ever been written have been cataloged and reviewed (as seems to about to be happening in this novel), this novel will be touted as a masterpiece of post-modernism. Masterpiece. That's a strong word, but I stand by it. This book is going to stick with me for a long time.

The novel is actually the first chapters of ten separate novels, each written in a different genre, with a different style, encompassing different characters, but all cut off More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2008

Mark rated it:

Calvino is an absolute genius when it comes to considering and exploring new and unique narrative techniques. He is also a damn fine story teller as well. With his desire to explore and be adventurous his approach to writing his novels is often risky to the point of driving away some readers, I am not one of those readers. Instead I am a reader who marvels at the skill with which he manipulates every small detail within his books to prove a point of drive home the meaning behind what he is doing More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 05, 2011

Haman rated it:

تو ادمی هستی که به دلیل اصول زندگیت هیچ انتظاری از هیچ چیزی نداری

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 05, 2011

Amir rated it:

فرض کنین دو تا نویسنده با هم درگیر شدن... سر اینکه کدوم بهتر میتونه بنویسه و پوز اون یکی رو بماله به خاک... بعد دو نفری تصمیم میگیرن هر کدوم یه داستان بنویسن تا قدرت نویسندگیشون رو به رخ همدیگه بکشن... یکی از اون نویسنده ها میبینه فقط یه خط داستانی نمیتونه تبحر نویسندگی اون رو تو نویسندگی نشون بده و تصمیم میگیره با یه خط نامرئی به عنوان خط داستان، عین یه تسبیح که نخش از جنس نخای نامرئی هست، چندین و چند تیکه از داستانایی که میتونه دربارشون بنویسه رو به هم وصل کنه و تبدیل به یه کتاب کنه تا اون کتا More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Steve rated it:

If one wanted to depict the whole thing graphically, every episode, with its climax, it would require a thee-dimensional model, perhaps four-dimensional, or, rather, no model: every experience is unrepeatable. What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space. – Italo Calvino

A masterpiece.

This is for those who love reading, enjoy the written word, and want to be take More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 15, 2008

Will rated it:

I'd been hearing about this one for years and finally gave it a shot. It was worth it, I think, though I'm not usually into the hyper-meta-fictional explorations of the nature of the modern novel that this book sort of epitomizes.

Basically, there's a present story, and it follows a reader ("you") who reads the beginnings of ten different novels for various reasons, always wanting them to continue, but never having the ability to do so.

The language is wonder More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2008

Malbadeen added it

Sarah, have you read this yet? When I was at Powell's last night I was standing in front of these books having my usual tactile "I love you" sessions with the covers when a guy asked me if I was "familiar with this author", I felt incredilby stupid to have to answer that "no, I'm really not" but I have "read the introduction to one of his books at my friends house several times, and I keep meaning to read the book", then I tried to gracefully mumble my way More...

4 comments like

Apr 16, 2008

Amy rated it:

Okay, so despite being a little gimmicky, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Every other chapter is written is second-person narration, and becomes very amusing, especially when "you" (the reader) does or thinks things that I would obviously never do..and "you" is obviously a male character, so that adds all the more humor to the situation for me personally.

The basic premise is that "you" pick up a new book from the bookstore, and after reading the first ch More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 29, 2008

Astrid rated it:

I'm just going to copy and paste my answer from the comments which outlines why I was so harsh in judging this book:

I attribute most of my aggression and frustration to the 24 hour time limit I had to read this book through my own disorganisation. Being so compressed by time, I didn't have much of an opportunity to savour all of his more insightful (and thus obscure to me) points about writing and reading and everything else. Plus, when I got to the book club, everyone else started More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 23, 2008

Jonathan rated it:

In its most poignant moments "Winter's Night" makes you believe that you are part of some infinitely complex system of self-awareness. It sends you into a whirlpool of self-reflection where the book folds in on itself and implodes. Particular parts make you see yourself from the protagonist's point of view while other parts let you witness yourself reading about yourself reading. A very curious feeling that I have never experienced before with any other book. The book itself is pur More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 04, 2008

Ryan rated it:

I finished this book while I was at my parents' place on Christmas eve. My mom loves to read. I was excited to tell her about the great book I'd finished, but as I tried to explain the story I sounded more and more ridiculous. It's really a book that has to be experienced. It's probably the closest I've come to realizing my childhood dream of joining Bastion ("say my name!" p.s. when I first saw the back of Fiona Apple's Tidal cd, I thought I'd found the princess again) on his journey More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 09, 2007

Pspealman rated it:

I had, I'll admit, high expectations. 'A novel by Calvino', I thought, 'what fun.' And after a brilliant start that had me curious and willing to fall into the prose without ready suspension of disbelief. . ..he changed the book. And then again and again.

A writer of Calvino's caliber can deliver a full fledged blossoming of plot and character in the spare economy of a single page - and yet this book with it's contrivance of changing the story, the milieu, the characters, and the ton More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)