Reviews

Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore by Italo Calvino

ritaralha's review against another edition

2.0

(…) há livros destinados à mesa de cabeceira, os que têm o seu lugar ao lado da poltrona, na cozinha, na casa de banho.

(…) Há livros que me dão logo a ideia do que poderei fazer; outros não, nada.

Há livros com que simpatizo, e livros que não consigo suportar e que me vêm parar sempre às mãos.

(…)

Mas é bonito ver os livros todos juntos. Eu adoro livros...

Adorei a capa e o título.
Um romance complexo e experimental que desafia as narrativas tradicionais. Calvino explora a relação entre o autor, o texto e o leitor de forma a criar uma experiência reflexiva, mas que não funcionou de todo comigo.
A história é muito fragmentada, cada capítulo apresenta um novo estilo e género literário, que vão desde o romance policial até à ficção científica, e deixou-me completamente desorientada.

magmun's review against another edition

4.0

This is such a weird and meta absurdist book in the best way. It felt like a love letter to readers and the action of reading itself. I really enjoyed the different perspectives and views on books and reading, and the format of the novel itself. The language used is very beautiful, despite being hard to follow at times as is the point. I read the William Weaver English translation so I’m interested to see what differences in meaning arise in the different translations vs the original Italian. I will note that I didn’t enjoy all of the stories within the story and that Calvino really can’t write women well at all. They are essentially just sexual objects or only serve to advance the plot for male characters. He also seems to have a problem writing non white characters and stories (which also included the weird sex stuff with women). I would be interested to see if that is prevalent in his other work or not. 

gilexia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

Das ist ein echt beeindruckendes Buch. Sprachlich ist es sehr gut und außergewöhnlich, und die Geschichte ist ziemlich verrückt und originell. Nur hatte ich nicht wirklich Spaß beim Lesen - gerade am Ende. Ich kann selbst nicht sagen woran es lag. Was mich auch etwas überrascht hat, dass da schon einige "heftige" Erotikszenen im Buch waren. Die waren auch total seltsam. Aber es ist eh alles seltsam an diesem Buch. Man sollte keine normale Geschichte mit einen roten Faden erwarten.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

the_sleepy_nightowl's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious reflective 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

4.25

Italo Calvino’s timeless classic embeds 10 short stories within a broader framework. While the narrative of the short stories and of the overall stories seem removed from each other at first, it becomes apparent that they form an overall tale of reading and what it means to be a reader. A truly wonderful novel about the meaning of reading.

disaemilie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

allierose2's review against another edition

adventurous funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No

4.0

This was a wild and absurdist ride. I absolutely loved the way it built structurally and the ending was stunning tbh. 

That being said, it was a bit of work to track at times (fine, but just sayin) and the agency and dimensionality of women in the world was pretty dismally lacking. 

monicariccio's review against another edition

4.0

Draws you in and keeps you utterly perplexed throughout. I have a lot of unanswered questions, but then, answers aren't all they're cracked up to be.

birdghost's review against another edition

challenging funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Went into this book completely clueless and was very quickly delighted and confused by the turn that it took. It's very clear having read this after Invisible cities is that Calvino loves to give the reader a little tast of something and then leave the rest of the imagining to them. I found this book feeling similar in a way to Pynchon's "Crying of Lot 49", what with the

silly conspiratorial turn that it takes,

although this is definitely a much more unserious, lighthearted version of that. The book has a lot to say about what it means to Read something, not all of which landed for me.

ah_nailse's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Sometimes I flew through this book, sometimes I had to force myself to keep reading. Sometimes I had to back up multiple chapters and reread everything I had just read because I did not understand what was going on. For a fictional book, I learned a lot. it kind of messed my head at the end and I had to put it down and Think, as good books tend to do.

benjobaggins's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75