A review by leosmile
The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino

5.0

Absolutely incredible. One of the first books I've read for myself rather than college in a little bit. I think having read sir gawain (and loving it and writing my essay on it) made me enjoy this infinitely more. The storytelling was incredible as per usual with Calvino, but the characters were a little more fleshed out than previous times, they were still definitely more meant to represent wider ideas (largely about identity, pride, self worth, connections etc) but he managed to create compelling characters as well as representations which I loved. Also like basically no misogyny which is great, I don't actually think calvino is a misogynist, but he would just say some slightly questionable stuff in previous books that were basically the only thing that brought books like 'if on a winter's night a traveller' down from 5 stars. So although I think if on a winter's night a traveller is possibly objectively the better book, and a masterpiece. This book was so enjoyable, and calvino at some of his best, and I cannot think of a criticism. So in my heart he deserves a 5 star review from me, as one of my favourite authors.