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lorna_harrison 's review for:
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino
A very thought provoking but strange book. A series of 10 short stories / novel openings which disappear (in a variety of ways) when the narrator / reader finishes them. They are tied together by the reader and other reader (who may be a woman he falls in love with) trying to find the rest of the book(s).
Very cleverly the titles of each of the part novels made a coherent opening paragraph. The book is full of musings on the act of reading and conspiracy driven groups of people - groups infiltrated and infiltrating other groups. One of the part novels ends up with a man trying so hard to create multiple copies of himself that he ends up with his mistress and wife in a room so full of mirrors they can't escape.
He also hints at the emergence of AI with the dodgy translator talking of creating a machine to finish books in the style of the first chapter and then sell them as fakes. All very forward thinking for the 70s when this was published. Another thought provoking idea is that you can determine the plot of a book merely by considering the words used most often - not something I'd thought about before.
If you are looking for a coherent plot or deeply drawn characters then this isn't the book for you. If you enjoy a very tenuous plot and lots of philosophical ponderings then you might enjoy this.
Very cleverly the titles of each of the part novels made a coherent opening paragraph. The book is full of musings on the act of reading and conspiracy driven groups of people - groups infiltrated and infiltrating other groups. One of the part novels ends up with a man trying so hard to create multiple copies of himself that he ends up with his mistress and wife in a room so full of mirrors they can't escape.
He also hints at the emergence of AI with the dodgy translator talking of creating a machine to finish books in the style of the first chapter and then sell them as fakes. All very forward thinking for the 70s when this was published. Another thought provoking idea is that you can determine the plot of a book merely by considering the words used most often - not something I'd thought about before.
If you are looking for a coherent plot or deeply drawn characters then this isn't the book for you. If you enjoy a very tenuous plot and lots of philosophical ponderings then you might enjoy this.