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Kirstie's review

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/374233.If_on_a_Winter_s_Night_a_Traveler?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1175386803m/374233.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/374233.If_on_a_Winter_s_Night_a_Traveler?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">If on a Winter's Night a Traveler</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/155517.Italo_Calvino">Italo Calvino</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14003643?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars I should really finish re-reading this for a book club before I write a full review...let's just say that this one is probably Calvino's most experimental (atleast of the ones I've read) and is just as challenging as it is rewarding. There are abrupt discontinuations of plots and characters and at least five mismatched stories meshed into one...it begins in a fairly half-hazard way after Calvino invites you to get comfortable (do put your feet up, now!) and free yourself from any interruptions. Pretty soon, we go back and forth between the novel characters and the characters of the people reading it whose novels were misprinted and what they were reading turns out to be a Polish novel...
 
 
 The readers of the original novel buy the Polish novel, which is nothing like what they (or we) were reading and that turns out to be something else entirely. We are continually addressed as the reader and so is the reader searching to simply finish the original story. I'm up to pg. 63 again and I have no idea what story I'm reading or when it switched from one to another at this point (even though I've read this 5 yrs. ago, that doesn't seem to help.) We become like the readers who believe the book was misprinted and they will never get back to the original story...somehow, we feel lost in the plot. There's a little bit in us that suffers the loss of what could have been with each character we lose track of. We find ourselves not wanting to make permanent relationships with the new characters, thinking we will soon lose track of them again anyhow.
 
 
 The very fact of the matter is, I believe Calvino does this purposefully...it's as if he is examining simultaneously the process of reading with the process of writing. It's mainly about form at this point though if memory serves, there is more substance at later points. In any case, a must for fans of experimental fiction, esp. if willing to struggle with the unpredictable and disorienting. 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/700282?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Kirstie's review
rating:
recommended for: fans of experimental fiction

I should really finish re-reading this for a book club before I write a full review...let's just say that this one is probably Calvino's most experimental (atleast of the ones I've read) and is just as challenging as it is rewarding. There are abrupt discontinuations of plots and characters and at least five mismatched stories meshed into one...it begins in a fairly half-hazard way after Calvino invites you to get comfortable (do put your feet up, now!) and free yourself from any interruptions. Pretty soon, we go back and forth between the novel characters and the characters of the people reading it whose novels were misprinted and what they were reading turns out to be a Polish novel...

The readers of the original novel buy the Polish novel, which is nothing like what they (or we) were reading and that turns out to be something else entirely. We are continually addressed as the reader and so is the reader searching to simply finish the original story. I'm up to pg. 63 again ...more

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