Reviews

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.

captlychee's review against another edition

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2.0

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].

m10zeus's review against another edition

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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

2.5

tabea17's review against another edition

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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

3.0

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.

paige_floyd's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.0

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