The Baron in the Trees

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


*** Possible spoilers ***

Although I've finished the book I don't know whether I like it or not. Certainly I was about ready to give up after the first hundred pages because it seemed like nothing was happening. A young, rebellious son of the aristocracy has a falling out with his family, climbs a tree and stays there - for the rest of his life. It's an interesting premise, and at first seemed Kafkaesque, but nothing seemed to happen. He was innovative. He found ways of comping with a lifestyle above ground but so what? I read to the end only because I hate giving up but somewhere around page 150 I started becoming interested. True, there isn't so much a plot as a string of anecdotes tied together by that business of being up in the trees but gradually a theme began to emerge - a theme of being outside, and possibly above the world and yet wanting to connect to it. The protagonist is far from perfect. He has plenty of faults yet he is constantly engaging and trying to understand the world around him. In the end, I found myself quite enjoying the story but I have to admit, it took me a long while to get there and some of the twists and turns were either bizarre or I simply didn't understand them.

The author was born in 1923 and since this story was set in the very late 1700s and early 1800s, he couldn't have had personal experience of the history he relates yet does so in a pretty authoritative manner. At least he makes it believable.

Parts of the dialogue have not been translated into English. I could muddle my way through some of the French and even a tiny bit of the Italian and Spanish but when it came to Russian, I understood nothing. I may have missed out on some details but I think I understood enough to follow along or at least obtain a feeling of where the author was taking me as a reader.

Mixed into the story are bits of philosophy and any number of contradictions in many of the characters. They work as illustrations of the complexity of people and life in general. Over all, this might be a coming-of-old-age story.

I would NOT recommend this for young readers. I would not recommend this for those who lack patience. I think I can recommend it for those who are willing to accept very slow pacing and don't mind the lack of a cohesive plot. This isn't a page-turner nor is it reasonable to expect to read it in a few sittings.



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