Libby's review
The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount
by Italo Calvino
Libby's review
The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino
Libby's review
rating:
bookshelves:
year-of-only-good-books
recommended for: People who get headaches from reading Eco
Two contemporary folk tales by a master fabulist, both set during religious wars with the Turks and both featuring deliciously improbable protagonists. Yet while "The Nonexistent Knight" contained an uproariously funny take on battle and those who partake of it, I found "The Cloven Viscount" to be a much stronger story overall, structurally speaking. Where "Knight"'s high point comes early on and the rest of the story is a kind of travelogue with several twists of varying importance/interest, "Viscount" spins the tension out as far as it possibly can before bringing about the resolution. Masterful stuff, though not my favorite of Calvino's. I've been spoiled by "Cosmicomics" and "If on a winter's night a traveler..."
