THE CASTLE OF CROSSED DESTINIES
by Italo Calvino
published
1977
(first published 1969)
by Harcourt Brace
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binding
Hardcover, 129 pages
isbn
0436082217
(isbn13: 9780436082214)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 570)
Read in July, 2008
I absolutely adore Italo Calvino, but this book was a little too out there for me. The book consists of a series of short stories (divided into two sections) about a first person narrator (presumably Calvino himself) and his encounter with other travelers (first in a castle/inn then in a tavern).
All of them tell their stories to one another through the use of tarot cards. No actual spoken storytelling is used. It is all told through the cards. Basically, the book is about the narrator inter...more
All of them tell their stories to one another through the use of tarot cards. No actual spoken storytelling is used. It is all told through the cards. Basically, the book is about the narrator inter...more
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People sit around in pubs and get drunk and bandy ridiculous ideas about - hey, what if you wrote a novel but you couldn't use one letter of the alphabet! Wow, great idea. Hey what about a bunch of characters who can only communicate by means of tarot cards? Whoah, that's cool. Hey - what about someone getting in the next round? Well, we've been part of those evenings, and the next day we've got a fat headache and forgotten all that nonsense. Except for Italo Calvino and Georges Perec. They don'...more
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Read in May, 2008
I wasn't particularly blown away by this book. Doubtlessly, it's very clever and there were parts in which I felt it reached greatness but for the main it seemed just ever so slightly on the side of self-indulgence. Perhaps this is a harsh assessment. I think I probably read it too quickly and that it really would benefit from a slower, second reading. The language is certainly magnificent and the ideas fascinating - amalgamating famous myths from Oedipus to Parsifal to Hamlet to Faust to King ...more
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Read in January, 2008
I enjoyed this more for the original format. It felt like Calvino had more fun writing this than I did reading it. Some of the stories are quite entertaining and original, but the repetition of the cards and sort of rote presentation got a little dull at times. If anything, it inspired me to try out this technique myself and so I have unearthed my lost pack of tarot cards and begun re-examining their pictures to see what sorts of stories I could glean...
I would not recommend this as an intro...more
I would not recommend this as an intro...more
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Read in June, 2007
On the one hand, the premise of this collection of short stories is quite nifty. On the other hand, it just isn't as much fun as I hoped it would be. Perhaps Italo Calvino adhered to slavishly to his own good idea, or perhaps he was just unlucky at cards.
The premise of The Castle of Crossed Destinies is simple. Italo Calvino tells stories inspired by random tarot cards drawn from a deck. The book has two sections, inspired by two different sets of tarot cards.
The premise of The Castle of Crossed Destinies is simple. Italo Calvino tells stories inspired by random tarot cards drawn from a deck. The book has two sections, inspired by two different sets of tarot cards.
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Read in September, 2007
"The Castle of Crossed Destinies" had an interesting concept: a number of travellers tell their stories without speaking. They do this by laying a series of tarot cards on a table. Calvino's narrator interprets the story that the cards tell. It was a very quick read at just over 120 pages.
While this book was unique and an interesting twist on storytelling, I didn't enjoy it as much as I liked the other Calvino books that I've read.
While this book was unique and an interesting twist on storytelling, I didn't enjoy it as much as I liked the other Calvino books that I've read.
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Read in March, 2008
I would give this more stars, except I think that Calvino and I exist on completely different planes. Only occasionally do our mindrealms intersect enough that I can really understand what is going on and what he is doing, and then it's at a very basic level. Since this is a work that he himself claims difficulty in understanding, at least I'm in good company in being confused.
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Read in September, 2007
Better in concept than in execution. The book is a series of short stories. The conceit is travelers rendered mute and forced to tell their tales through entwining Tarot cards. It winds up repetitive, which is sad in a 120 paged book. The Shakespearean tragedies told in Tarot are an interesting twist.
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Read in February, 2007
I read this in Italian, which was interesting because I don't really know Italian. The narratives threads are generated by Tarot cards until the entire table is filled with cards. Thus the same card has a different function in several narratives. A typical novel of the structuralist period.
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Read in January, 2008
Calvino writes on the multiplicity of meanings, on perspective, on society and in a way favoured by Boccaccio, Ariosto and Chaucer... but with a twist. Tarot, muteness and interpretation - by writing - all play their part in these two short, yet clever, collections of tales.
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visioni possibili
"...le storie che gli uomini non vivono, i pensieri che bussano una volta alla soglia della coscienza e svaniscono per sempre, le particelle del possibile scartate dal gioco delle combinazioni, le soluzioni a cui si potrebbe arrivare e non si arriva..."
"...le storie che gli uomini non vivono, i pensieri che bussano una volta alla soglia della coscienza e svaniscono per sempre, le particelle del possibile scartate dal gioco delle combinazioni, le soluzioni a cui si potrebbe arrivare e non si arriva..."
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Read in January, 2007
Cool premise, the author tells the stories of various characters through tarot cards. Short read, but didn't always keep me interested. Having more exposure to european folk/legend/myth history would have served me well while reading this book.
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The translation of the titles in English for some reason does not sound as good as the Spanish version. Language here is so central I wonder what is lost even in the Spanish translation, as good as it seemed to me.
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Interesting story experiment to fit a series of stories into a Tarot card layout. Seems to work just about as well as it can. It appears to have created new story threads that the author never expected.
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
fantasy readers
Mysterious travelers gather in a medieval castle to tell vignettes via tarot cards; raises questions of archetypes, destiny vs choice, art and the significance of detail.
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Read in January, 2006
I was overwhelmed by every page of this book...the intricacies of generating Chaucerian tales from Tarot cards could not have been done by any other author.
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Read in September, 2007
Really different narration. I love its complexity and the different way it is presented. But it was a snoozer at the same time. I kept falling asleep.
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Read in January, 1999
I was really into Calvino for awhile- I thought the conceptual games he inserted into his stories were pretty cool. But, now it's been awhile
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Read in January, 2006
I thought this was going to be really good but it was really repetitive and boring. Just not original enough to hold my attention.
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Read in January, 2005
After Invisible Cities, this was a disappointment. And my friend who knows tarot liked it even less.
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