Aaron's review
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino
Aaron's review
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Aaron's review
rating:
recommended for: anyone who can appreciate a challenge
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, unfinished, at a moment of suspense. These novels are intercut with chapters in which You, the Reader, attempt in vain to track down the missing sections of the novel. Every step of Your journey leads You to the next novel. You meet with Another Reader and convince yourself that You are in love. You travel the world. You uncover an international plagiarizing conspiracy intended to trick an international censorship scheme. You end up in prison working for the very people who want you not to read. If Yo...more
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, unfinished, at a moment of suspense. These novels are intercut with chapters in which You, the Reader, attempt in vain to track down the missing sections of the novel. Every step of Your journey leads You to the next novel. You meet with Another Reader and convince yourself that You are in love. You travel the world. You uncover an international plagiarizing conspiracy intended to trick an international censorship scheme. You end up in prison working for the very people who want you not to read. If Yo...more
