If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Rating:
Summary: Calvino reminds us why we read
Review: This book is a must-read. Borrowing structural elements from a lifetime of close reading, Calvino puts together an anti-novel which addresses itself first and foremost to the reader. In these pages, you will meet people who read like you do, however you read.

Calvino is one of those writers who tells us things we feel we should already know, but in a way that takes us by surprise and makes us laugh. In other words, he does what a novelist should do; he shows us how we work, and he does it as a friend.

What separates "If on a winter's night a traveler" from so many other Postmodern books is a seeming absence of bitterness. In this book, we get none of the doom and gloom which has become the calling card of the Postmodern. This is no apocalypse, and Calvino is no prophet. All the better for us.

Calvino teaches us what we have forgotten; that the book is a book. That we have something in our hands that is made out of paper and ink and glue, and that on its pages are ideas and words and letters. He invites us to lose ourselves in a series of embedded stories with no ending, and he challenges us to think deeply, not about the nature of reality or the fate of mankind, but about what it means to read a book.

Refreshing, fun, and highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Cute idea, boring read
Review: Yes the idea of this novel is cute, but as with many ideas it ends up failing in execution. Simply this book is a tiresome bore to read (probably the longest 300 pages I ever had to endure). And no it is not just because it was totally devoid of plot; it was also void of energy, passion, excitement etc. This is a book that is fun to hear about but not fun to read. I do give credit to Calvino for his originality, but really a writer needs more than mere originality to stand on.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful modern novel
Review: Calvino's novel is an excellent experimental piece of prose. Calvino plays with the author-reader relationship in a way that is quite intriguing, and manages to build suspence and interest with a fractured plot structure.

A warning to potential readers: This body of this novel consists of many "first chapters" that are not resolved. Although quite good, they may not be satisfying to those who prefer a more traditional structure with some resolution of plot. Still, if you are inclined to be a bit adventurous with your reading, I highly recommend If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.

Rating:
Summary: The Paradox of Expression
Review: "Zeno of Elea" is the contact phrase between the first two mystical, intesecting characters presented in this megalithic novel (besides "you" the Reader), and this bears great importance for anyone wanting to grasp what I think lies at the core of Calvino's intentions.

Achilles cannot catch the tortoise because it always a fraction ahead, assuming that there are an infinite amount of possible points to be accessed within a finite space in time. Similarly, what we call a "Novel" is the orderly arrangement of an infinite amount of lingual possibilities. Although Calvino explores this philosophical paradox more fully in *Mr. Palomar,* *If on a Winter's Night a Traveler* exists as a homage to the infinity of combinations, large and small, able to be manipulated not only by the writer, but also the reader, the translator, the publisher, and so on.

To me, Calvino is the master of imitating the chaotic-order-complexity which operates at the very core of universality, infiniy, eternity, etc. If you are someone who likes books-that-are-more-like-movies-or-TV-than-books, then this is not the text for you. However, if you are constantly amazed at the complexity which surrounds us and is us and permeates all things, and you want to see a novel smashed to a million pieces in order to form an electron cloud of literary-philosophical inquiry, then you are going to want to read this book. And then read it again. And then read it again. And then...

Rating:
Summary: Magic, joy, and perversity
Review: A perfect novel that is not at all a novel; a celebration of reading and imagining; a little mystery; and i could read it again and again, tasting it. Those of you have to have a "PLOT" or some such nonsense deserve what you get, and your negative reviews of this book go in with all the other examples of human idiocy.

Rating:
Summary: I could not wait to finish it
Review: I bought this book with high expectations (a bit like 'the reader', no doubt), but they were dashed by the end of the first chapter. As the page numbers increased, so did the absurdity. Some of the 'novels within' were of interest but the whole was not very satisfying. I would recommend virtually every book I have read in the last 8 or so years before this one.

Rating:
Summary: a Read for Readers
Review: Strangely enough, this book was assigned for my college class. I don't feel I needed to be educated on the art of reading... My mother told me that I was trying to read before I could sit up. This can be a frustrating read if you find yourself easily caught up in plot lines, and although the novels inside of the novel aren't "deep," they are interesting. This isn't your stereotypical novel, and I admire Calvino for that. I would recommend this to anyone, although it isn't on the top of my list. :)

Rating:
Summary: Not exactly a conventional narrative!
Review: I must confess to having found this book very difficult. Calvino satirises a number of different narrative styles, and continually shifts the ground from beneath the reader's feet. It is certainly very clever, but the point frankly eluded me. It is not that I necessarily look for a conventional narrative; but I do look for a particular authorial vision. I'm afraid I didn't see anything more in this book than a bag of tricks. It was all very amusing, but I distinctly got the impression I was missing something. My loss, no doubt!

Rating:
Summary: Oy, the number of logs you could saw with this book....
Review: However novel (ha, ha) the ideas herein; however vast the breadth (or girth) of Calvino's erudition; however numerous the styles (to their varying degress of success) of literary "satire" (if it can indeed be called that), this just made my eyes hurt. Not to be daunted by a little book, I eked my way through it, and met with the glorious reward of a splitting headache... I've read most of Calvino, enjoyed most of it thoroughly (esp. Baron o' the Trees and Invisible Cities), but Winter's Night reminded me most of the high you get after snorting tepid oatmeal: (a) lumpily suffocating and (b) thoroughly unsatisfying (DISCLAIMER: don't try this at home or without proper adult supervision, kiddies). I'll take a tall postModernist blonde over this malarkey-in-translation any day of the week.

Rating:
Summary: Italo!!!
Review: Ingenious, imaginative, and mind-blowing. Never before have I seen an author who can minupulate words so well, or, to tell the truth, one who writes an enttire novel in second person. This avant-garde novel is engaging and revolutionary to the way books are written and read.