BOOKS FROM ITALYIf on a Winter's Night a Traveler
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Male author
Description:
Introduction by Peter Washington; Translation by William Weaver Italo Calvino’s masterpiece combines a love story and a detective story into an exhilarating allegory of reading, in which the reader of the book becomes the book’s central character. Based on a witty analogy between the reader’s desire to finish the story and the lover’s desire to consummate his or her passion, IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER is the tale of two bemused readers whose attempts to reach the end of the same book—IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER, by Italo Calvino, of course—are constantly and comically frustrated. In between chasing missing chapters of the book, the hapless readers tangle with an international conspiracy, a rogue translator, an elusive novelist, a disintegrating publishing house, and several oppressive governments. The result is a literary labyrinth of storylines that interrupt one another—an Arabian Nights of the postmodern age.
Reviews:
(8 months ago) |
22 Mar, 2024
I loved this book! I know this is often a hit or miss for people, as it is certainly not a book to read if you want to escape or wind down. This book is challenging and unlike anything I have ever read before. I've not annotated another book as much as I have with this one. Italo Calvino writes in the second person, which is not easy to pull off, but he does it well by placing the reader into the story. Italo Calvino was born in Cuba, so I marked this as my read for Cuba, but I know he grew up in Italy, so you can easily place his books in either country.
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(6 months ago) |
24 Apr, 2024
2,5 stars.
ugh. this started off so well. i was super excited to read it but soon found out that it's ... different. a lot of different stories, characters, styles, moods. some stories were great, some absolutely lost me and made me skim the pages. at the end i was happy it was over. if it wouldn't have been for the bookclub i would have dnf'd it after 3 chapters.
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