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If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

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oaysis134's review

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challenging funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

incunabula_and_intercourse's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I'm kind of struggling with this one.

See, If on a winter's night a traveler is the kind of book that should become an instant favorite. Metafictional weirdness, lush prose, absurdism out the wazoo... I loved that! I loved that a lot! I also really liked

the twist with the book titles; I had a hunch that they'd come together to form a cohesive sentence, and I was satisfied at the end when they did just that.

Like, objectively, from a craft perspective, this is a masterpiece, and one I heartily recommend.

That being said. From a critical/feminist lens, this book struggles to pass the sniff test. Male characters get to be characters; female characters are always Girls, Young Women, Mistresses. You, the Reader, go to a university, and while you're there, you note the crowds of "young men and girls." And pretty much every woman is either a matron or an object of lust. I thought Lotaria was going in a slightly different, if not mean-spirited "lol these college leftists amirite" direction, but then

you have sex with her, too

. So.

(There's also something to note about how the most lurid and graphic depictions of sex and sexuality happen in stories with non-Western casts, but that's not fully my call to make. It's just a thing that makes me raise my eyebrow somewhat.)

And I get that it's all about, like... Life's all the same story, man, boy meets girl, it's so deep, and yet. The fact that the Reader gets to be an ambiguous (if not straight and male) figure, while the Other Reader has to be Ludmilla, object of desire and pinball passed between different men who want her for different reasons... The fact that when you're addressed as Ludmilla, it's not in the context of you doing things, it's in the context of the Reader analyzing your house while you're not there, or else being the target of his desire... And no, a little wink and a nod to the fact that you're doing the thing doesn't absolve you from the fact that you still did the thing. A trope with a lampshade on is still a trope, and ironic misogyny is still misogyny. It did dampen my enthusiasm somewhat.

So, why the high rating? Well, I'm more lenient on old books and classics, and for all its misogyny, Traveler is still a great book. Like, were I less concerned with feminism, it would have unquestionably been a 5-star favorite read. Think of 4.5 as a consolation prize. But to people giving it lower scores for feminist reasons, I cannot fault you in the slightest, because oh my God, same.

And now I'm realizing that all 3 metafiction books I've read were by white men. This is the genre for me, but I need more female authors, stat.

egyptiaca's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

lalexare's review against another edition

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4.0

Surreale e geniale come solo Calvino può essere.
Il tema di fondo del libro è il rapporto unico che si instaura tra il lettore, il libro e l'autore, e al contempo tra più lettori.
Le continue interruzioni dei racconti, il continuo entrare e uscire dai romanzi, i salti da un piano all'altro della storia frammentano la lettura rendendola poco scorrevole e volutamente fastidiosa. Calvino riesce a farci provare lo stesso fastidio che provoca al Lettore protagonista, facendoci di fatto immedesimare con lui e parlando, quindi, tanto a lui quanto a noi.