Ken’s Comments (group member since Jan 21, 2020)

Ken’s comments from the The Obscure Reading Group group.

Cindy wrote: "I was instantly charmed when I started reading. It seems like the spiral of texts is taking us down a delightful rabbit hole! My thought was that Calvino is exploring the multitude of ways that rea..."

Good points here, Cindy. Your take gives Calvino's process a logical progression, which is saying something, given a reader's initial reaction might be, "This is chaos!"

It isn't. And the fact that it isn't forces the reader not just to enjoy passively (one of reading's pleasures) but to engage in a challenge (a quite different pleasure of reading). Some readers prefer one to the other, but the Reading Rewards Tent is a big one.

Alison wrote: "I should be making notes as I read, because I keep thinking, "That's interesting" etc etc, but my forgettory then forgets. What I am finding interesting is his ability to mess with my inner mind. I..."

Your" forgettory forgets"? I like that one. Sounds like you had some Lewis Carroll with your morning tea. Or coffee. Or Danish, if its Copenhagen outside your window.

Sandra wrote: "“Or perhaps the author still has not made up his mind, just as you, reader, for that matter, are not sure what you would most like to read....”

I find just as the stories start to interest me, our..."


We all know someone (usually in family) who loves to tease. I see Calvino a bit this way. "Look at my talent for hooking you, you little fishy, you," he seems to be telling readers with each new "book's" nascent plot.

Then he pulls the seabed from under you.

Darrin wrote: "The book leaves me with questions including one related to the question of what other books is this similar to. First, can or should this book be classified as metafiction? Also, has anyone other t..."

If on a Meta's Night a Traveler. Yeppers. If ever there was one. I've heard (or shall I say Sseen) Jjasper Fforde's name, but never read his work.

This week's discussion covers the book's beginning through the end of Chapter Six (where, on the opposite page, you will see the chapter called "In a network of lines that enlace"). If you have read ahead, please make every effort to avoid discussing material in the second half of the book, as that will come under the "spoiler" category.

For this week's posts, it's wide open, as usual. To begin, I will kick around a few ideas and questions, which you can use or ignore:

It's well established that there is a "contract" between writer and reader any time a book is written and read. Certainly Italo Calvino plays on this as he openly addresses the reader and then gets playful (coy?) as he jumps from his narrator (I) to books that start but fail to continue.

What do you make of Calvino's idea and his style? What effect do they have on you as a reader? Can this be called "entertainment"? How about serious literature? And if not, why not?

What, in your opinion, is Calvino particularly good at? Not so good at?

Have you become invested in any characters in this first half of the book? The (ahem) plot, perhaps? Settings, maybe? How about descriptive flourishes?

What other books or writers is this similar to? And what authors or books might be polar opposites?

These are just starter questions, but you can make up your own questions, offer your own opinions, or go wherever you wish. After all, Italo Calvino certainly did! Now it's the readers' turn!

Thanks, Darrin. It's new. Being a shoestring operation, I ask my wife to be the "professionial photographer" for author photographs when new books are about to come out, and there's been no new book since Oct., '17.

As is evident on my face, I'm slowing down and aging, just like Grandma once warned when I was young, plucky, and scheduled to be immortal. Let's hope the aging process proceeds like the best wine and cheese, at least.

I will put the first discussion thread up on Monday night. That's Memorial Day, if you're a State-side type. Here in Maine, supposed to be coolish and maybe some much-needed rain on Monday. My daughter in Minn. says lots of recent rain out there, but here, it's been on the drought-y side.

I've reached the halfway point, so am now going to move to other books until the first week of June.

As stated, my advice is to set aside at LEAST an hour to read. No dipping, reading here and there, that sort of thing.

Also, I found the story chapters (titles vs. numbers) actually got better and better as the book progressed. I genuinely wish two of them continued! In that sense, it's frustrating. But I'm sure that's just the type of frustrating Calvino had in mind.

Sue wrote: "I started Calvino today too. I’m still at the clever stage, very early in the book, so perhaps I should read slowly so the clever-ness doesn’t overwhelm. I’m enjoying it so far."

I've started to jot down a line, a page, to comment on as I go. Otherwise the cleverness begins to blur together. This way, with the note, it's something more (or less) than just clever.

Not so fast, kind sir! That sort of thing.

Sara wrote: "I'm so sorry you lost him, Ken. Sixteen years is a long time to share with an animal--like parting with a family member. I have been there, and with my 20 year old cat, I am sure to go there again."

Thanks -- and I certainly look at the bright side of things. Sixteen years, for a 65 lb. dog, is a good run. I think 20 for a cat is, too!

My dog of 16 years (died, alas, last April) loved paper goods. He was especially fond of furtively slipping paper napkins off unsuspecting diners' laps in the dining room (a tablecloth serving as accomplice). He polished off napkins in a second.

We had to buy garbage cans with lids, otherwise he'd consume used Kleenex (all together now: ewww).

Was he above bank statements, bills, and once, at Christmas, a check? Not at all!

Roughage, I guess. But we loved him anyway.

Sue wrote: "I still haven’t read him. Someday."


Wow. Amazing you ran the gauntlet of the American school system without being assigned a Steinbeck.

On another note (middle C, for warming up), I started the Calvino today. Middle-C is for "Clever."

Me, too, though I really should get around to Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat first (makes mental note for summer TBR tower).

I'm still holding off but fast approaching the date, later this week, when Calvino and I meet. Brushing up on my Italian, I am (even though he was born in Cuba, of all places).

Bookbook wrote: "Hi all.

I'm Alison, from the Tasman area, New Zealand.

I'm an older person, with a lot of miles under my expanding belt. Married to the same man for 46 +/- years (the exact total escapes me). Du..."


Welcome, Alison. I happen to like War and Peace (especially Peace) and, like you, talk more on a keyboard than I do in real life.

Looking forward to your participation from the land of Kiwis.

Laura wrote: "Hi, everyone. I am here on an invitation from Matthew. I asked him where on earth he found a book club that would select Calvino, and he directed me here. When I saw the name of this group, it all ..."

Welcome, Laura. Exciting that you are jumping into teaching at a time when we need so many more dedicated to that profession. I taught high school and middle school English for 25 years before retiring in July of the last normal school year (2019... lucky me), and read that a lot of veteran teachers jumped OUT of the profession with the advent of Covid. Why take chances?

So, yes. The kids need you and others! Also, although the titles may be dated, you can check out my YA shelf. I read a ton of YA for the same reason you're doing so -- to get reluctant readers to READ.

See you in Calvino June, I hope.

Welcome, Lois!

A similar tragic end to a promising writer, only in this case one I much enjoyed reading, occurred with The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake.

Feel better, Sandra. That's an order. From a guy born between wars (if there is such a thing) who never served.

I abandoned A Confederacy of Dunces so long ago, but I can't always trust my former self and have, on occasion, tried the waters a second time with success on such books. So maybe someday.

Jean -- Sorry if I missed, but who is Chris? (My poem for the day.)

Jan -- Funny, but true. As with book covers, we often take a natural liking to faces. Or not.

I heart word play. What good are they if not playful?

Tomorrow I'm picking up a D.H. Lawrence novel, thinking I can squeeze it in over the course of a week leading to starting this. Eh. If not, it will be paused while I Italo my Calvino, is all.

And Diane, I came to the same place as you vis-a-vis finishing books. After 100 pp., if there's nothing there, I move on. That said, I might invoke the old rule of soldiering on in the case of a group read. It's in the Moderator Constitution, Section 12, Paragraph 7, Line Up.

Great to see you here, Tom. We are all the "travelers" in Calvino's title, I think. That's part of the writer-reader agreement Italo signed way back when.