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A review by larkais
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
adventurous
reflective
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? Yes
2.75
Overall 4 stars for the Meta, anywhere between 1-4 stars for the short stories. Threeish stars all together, that male gaze really detracts from the book
As a book that looks at the meta analysis of physically reading and writing a book, it was wonderful. I thought that there was a clever moment about how the plot was slipping through the reader's fingers, both us as the reader and the character in the novel who thought that "everything was slipping through your fingers; perhaps it was also the fault of the translation". I liked this moment a lot since I had the exact same thought about the novel before I read that line. It was strange, fun and disjointed.
"When you read, you can stop and skip sentences: you are the one who sets the pace. When someone else is reading, it is difficult to make your attention coincide with the tempo of his reading: the voice goes either too fast or too slow". Excellently phrased!
The short stories were also nice! I really wanted to keep reading some. I really liked the very first one. It showed interesting thoughts about how an outsider is seen in a small town - also how each of the villagers is seen in the town. Such as people betting on which guest will show up first since they have very similar habits. I like the twist murder plot at the end, very cool and mysterious. I also liked the story about the lady that liked to draw and she convinced the MC to get her an anchor and 12 ft of rope on her behalf so that she could draw it as she just loved the dimensions of the anchor. Ah however that set up is just perfect enough to break someone out of the prison, where she likes to go and draw people. MC takes the fall for her and doesn't get the tools
The first half was wonderful, the second half gets more and more distasteful. The male gaze was present in the first half but oh just a flight of fancy with Ludmilla, but it truly swings into full force in the second half.There is the translator who started this whole mess since he spied on Ludmilla and loved how she read a book. The Reader falls in love with Ludmilla through those letters and ultimately decides to marry her by the end of the book. But there is no development of love, it's just something the Reader decided where Ludmilla had no voice in it.
The two worst short stories about this was "On a carpet of leaves illuminated by the moon" and "Around an empty grave". I thought both of them started really nicely but it takes a real turn into sexual harassment and mommy issues in both of these stories. The first is about this visitor who has an affair with the matriarch but is really in love with the daughter - a bit of a graphic sex scene in this one. The other is about a guy trying to find his mother and he harasses girl in this one too.
As a book that looks at the meta analysis of physically reading and writing a book, it was wonderful. I thought that there was a clever moment about how the plot was slipping through the reader's fingers, both us as the reader and the character in the novel who thought that "everything was slipping through your fingers; perhaps it was also the fault of the translation". I liked this moment a lot since I had the exact same thought about the novel before I read that line. It was strange, fun and disjointed.
"When you read, you can stop and skip sentences: you are the one who sets the pace. When someone else is reading, it is difficult to make your attention coincide with the tempo of his reading: the voice goes either too fast or too slow". Excellently phrased!
The short stories were also nice! I really wanted to keep reading some. I really liked the very first one. It showed interesting thoughts about how an outsider is seen in a small town - also how each of the villagers is seen in the town. Such as people betting on which guest will show up first since they have very similar habits. I like the twist
The first half was wonderful, the second half gets more and more distasteful. The male gaze was present in the first half but oh just a flight of fancy with Ludmilla, but it truly swings into full force in the second half.
The two worst short stories about this was "On a carpet of leaves illuminated by the moon" and "Around an empty grave". I thought both of them started really nicely but it takes a real turn into sexual harassment and mommy issues in both of these stories. The first is about this visitor who has an affair with the matriarch but is really in love with the daughter - a bit of a graphic sex scene in this one. The other is about a guy trying to find his mother and he harasses girl in this one too.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual harassment