Reviews

Italo Calvino starts off ten stories and then cuts them off right when they get going. You never actually find out what happens, and yet somehow … it works.

I was teetering between four and five stars. It was close to five for its brilliance, humor, unbelievable writing, and — more than anything — for the skill necessary to successfully pull off such a deranged project. It’s ultimately getting a four from me because it didn’t totally captivate me or totally ruin me. Which, ya know, makes sense given that he cuts off 10 separate stories exactly when they get to the good part. I guess that program has some inherent flaws.

It’s bizarre and so well done. If you liked it, read Nabokov’s Pale Fire.

mariaaab's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

rtcrook's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

3.5 stars - very conflicted about how to rate this.

I loved the experimentation in structure and how it all tied into the act of reading itself. There are some truly insightful reflections in here and this book will stick with me for a while.

I hated the cognitive load of actually reading it. I like difficult books, but the slog of reading it combined with things like all the women being props to advance the point or story, or the strange uses of different cultures without feeling like the author had a grasp on them, just really put me off. It was written in the 70s so I by no means had high expectations for either of those points, but combined with always feeling tired of reading it, I just found myself going UGH. The book was universal in many of its insights, but very dated in the way it explored some of those said insights.

I think this might have benefited from a closer, slower reading to prevent the frustration from piling up and to catch more of the nuance.

Very glad I read it, will likely never ever re-read it.