You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
medium-paced
I initially read this book back in the 80s with far too much earnestness. I am sure I would have given it 5 stars then and waxed lyrical about it. Thirty years later it can across my path again and i re-read it and enjoyed it immensely but for very different reasons. This time i loved the humour, I read it with more of a childlike amusement at the fun of the surface of the story. The "depth" below the surface was still there but I did not need to dwell on it except to recognize, after many more years of reading under my belt, how Calvino did reflect so many aspects of reading and books.
This is a competently written, very well translated but pretty mediocre book. The author is overwhelmed by his own cleverness and bashes away at the ol' macchina da scrivere to produce these painfully self-reflexive insights into the craft of creating a fictional world. The author appears as a character, the author himself, some kind of omniscient writer from outside the world of the novel, and even the poor reader who's filled up a bit of his Kindle and emptied a bit of his bank account to be reading the damn thing. This sort of thing is never done well, and the proof of it is this book. [a:Mickey Spillane|50948|Mickey Spillane|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1318950096p2/50948.jpg] did a better job of directly addressing the reader, and only went on for 0.5% of the time Calvino does.
This should be read only in the context of studying postmodernism, because it's a good example of why the movement is ending, not with a bang but a whimper, and it can probably prepare you for the extreme faux naivete of [b:Sexing the Cherry|15050|Sexing the Cherry|Jeanette Winterson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328824090l/15050._SX50_.jpg|922184].
This should be read only in the context of studying postmodernism, because it's a good example of why the movement is ending, not with a bang but a whimper, and it can probably prepare you for the extreme faux naivete of [b:Sexing the Cherry|15050|Sexing the Cherry|Jeanette Winterson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328824090l/15050._SX50_.jpg|922184].
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Rating this book is really hard as I have loved and hated the book at the same time. At some points in the book I did not enjoy the story and felt like it was unnecessarily long. I liked the initial idea of being involved in the book and the story but once the character travelled to another country I kind of completely lost track of the story. Fun book but I would never read it again.
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
It may have taken me a month but that's because I'm an idiot. This was lovely
Writing reviews for terrible books is easy, but trying to gather my thoughts about good books is so much more difficult for me. Because I loved this—it was brilliant. It was also boring (not in a bad way, oddly enough). So those two words are what I'm sticking with: Brilliantly boring. Or boringly brilliant? It reminded me a lot of Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine, though with a definite plot and a lot more intrigue.
It was a book about books, about beginnings, a book in which any reader will doubtlessly see reflections of themselves. (Half of my copy is dog-eared and highlighted.) The story revolves around a main character ("the Reader") who begins reading If on a winter's night a traveler only to find that his copy cuts off just as it gets interesting. When he goes on a journey to find the rest of the book, he manages only to find a trail of other story beginnings, each of them just as magnetic as the last, and each cutting off just when the story really starts to suck you in.
I've always found myself uneasy about the "beginnings" of stories. I dislike the weightlessness of it, the feeling of being on the edge of a cliff and deciding whether or not to jump. This probably sounds like the antithesis of what a reader should be, but let me explain: I'm one of those readers who likes to be in the thick of things already; it's one of the reasons I disliked the first ASoIaF book but have loved the rest of them (and would probably love the first, too, if I ever get around to rereading it). I hate not knowing what's going on, though I do love the slow discovery of it.
But somehow, Calvino transformed this uneasy feeling of the "beginning" into an entire book, making a novel that never fully moves past that act of initial discovery. Every time the Reader and I set out to begin the next story, I found myself embracing the weightless, ungrounded feeling, and every time, just as my environment slipped away and I entered the story fully, it was ripped away. Calvino succeeded in this every time, with every new story, easily making the Reader's struggle, his irritation at being interrupted right when it was getting good, my own.
Now, I could have probably given this five stars, because it was, as I said before, brilliant. It's one of those novels where, as I was reading, I was consumed by it, but after I finished I had to admit it wasn't an all-time favorite.
So in the end, it's not a book I'll feel a connection to down the road, although I'm glad I read it and will definitely recommend it to others.
It was a book about books, about beginnings, a book in which any reader will doubtlessly see reflections of themselves. (Half of my copy is dog-eared and highlighted.) The story revolves around a main character ("the Reader") who begins reading If on a winter's night a traveler only to find that his copy cuts off just as it gets interesting. When he goes on a journey to find the rest of the book, he manages only to find a trail of other story beginnings, each of them just as magnetic as the last, and each cutting off just when the story really starts to suck you in.
I've always found myself uneasy about the "beginnings" of stories. I dislike the weightlessness of it, the feeling of being on the edge of a cliff and deciding whether or not to jump. This probably sounds like the antithesis of what a reader should be, but let me explain: I'm one of those readers who likes to be in the thick of things already; it's one of the reasons I disliked the first ASoIaF book but have loved the rest of them (and would probably love the first, too, if I ever get around to rereading it). I hate not knowing what's going on, though I do love the slow discovery of it.
But somehow, Calvino transformed this uneasy feeling of the "beginning" into an entire book, making a novel that never fully moves past that act of initial discovery. Every time the Reader and I set out to begin the next story, I found myself embracing the weightless, ungrounded feeling, and every time, just as my environment slipped away and I entered the story fully, it was ripped away. Calvino succeeded in this every time, with every new story, easily making the Reader's struggle, his irritation at being interrupted right when it was getting good, my own.
Now, I could have probably given this five stars, because it was, as I said before, brilliant. It's one of those novels where, as I was reading, I was consumed by it, but after I finished I had to admit it wasn't an all-time favorite.
So in the end, it's not a book I'll feel a connection to down the road, although I'm glad I read it and will definitely recommend it to others.
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No