Description
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration––"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded." Italo Calvino's remarkable novel leads you through many different genres including a detective adventure, a romance, a satire, an erotic story, a diary, and a quest. However, the real hero is ‘you’, The Reader.
In this sense of comedy, the novel has two protagonists, both are 'The Reader and Other Reader', they ultimately end up getting married, and having almost finished 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveler'. In another sense, it is a tragedy, a reflection on the difficulties of writing and the lonely nature of reading.
The Reader (the hero of the book) buys a fashionable new book, which opens with an urge: "Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." Alas! After 30 or so pages, The Reader finds that his copy is corrupted, and consists of nothing but the first section, over and over. He goes to return his copy to the bookshop, he discovers the volume, which he thought was by Calvino, is actually by the Polish (a writer from Poland) writer Bazakbal.
He is given the choice between the two versions, The Reader goes for the pole version as does the Other Reader (the second hero of the book), Ludmilla. However, this copy turns out to be yet another writer, as does the next, and the next one.
The real Calvino intersperses 10 different imitations of the work of the different genres –– stories of menace, spies, mystery, premonition–with explorations of how and why we choose to read, make meanings and get our bearings or fail to.
In the meantime, the Reader and other reader Ludmilla try to reach the end of the book together and develop a few romantic moments to give pleasure to each other. 'If on a Winter's Night' is blinding, vertiginous, and deeply romantic. The book makes both readers making love and reading each other because of the open space and time they have in their lives commonly.
The book was translated into English for the first time and published by William Weaver in 1981.
Review
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a 1979 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. The modern style of narration is formed as a frame story with a Metaphoric narrative style. It breaks the thin glass of traditional writing aspects. It sets a high bar of ingenious, breathtaking, and inventive ways of writing. He is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.
The book is about The Reader (you) who is trying to read a book called If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. Each chapter is divided into two sections. The first section of each chapter is in the second person and describes the underlying situations, then readers (hero or characters of the book) go through to attempt to read the next chapter of the book.
The second half is the first part of the new book that the reader (you) finds. The second half is always with a new formation of the story. This remarkable novel sways you through scattered areas of writing, however, the real hero is you ‘The Reader’.
Reading Calvino, you are constantly assailed by the notion that he is writing down what you have always known, except that you have never thought of it before. This is highly unnerving: fortunately, you are usually too busy laughing to go mad... I can think of no other fine writer to have beside me while Italy explodes, Britain burns, while the world ends. –– Salman Rushdie
A devastating, wonderfully ingenious parody of all those dreary best-sellers you buy at the airport. It is a 'world novel': take it with you next time you plan to travel in an armchair –– Lorna Sage, Observer.
About the Author
Born on 15 October 1923 in Cuba, Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. During the war, he was a member of the Italian Resistance and joined the Communist Party, although he later left in 1957. He is popular for his well-known fiction books 'Our Ancestors' trilogy (1952-1959), 'Cosmicomics'- a collection of short stories (1965), and the novels 'Invisible Cities' (1972), 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (1979), Marcovaldo and Mr. Palomar.
In 1981 he was awarded in prestigious French Légion d'Honneur. His work was well-liked in Britain, Australia, and The United States of America. He was the most translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death. He died in Siena on 19 September 1985.
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Rating: 4/5
Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher: RHUK
Publishing Date: February 20,1992
Language: English
Genre: Classic Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
ISBN-10: 9780099430896
ASIN: 0099430894
Pages: 272 (Paperback)
Cost: 261(Paperback)
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