A review by persimmon_lover
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

adventurous challenging funny informative lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I started out loving this book, then hated it, then loved it again. I think that it sometimes feels dated with postmodern tropes from the 70s/80s -- the world is a text, how can we know which text is authentic, what is an author, bla bla bla, it gets kind of tiring and annoying and feels too "on the nose". However, it is saved by the very intuitive and genuine feeling that Calvino brings. Also, the philosophical themes are indeed pretty interesting and deep, but it is just that they sometimes feel a bit overbearing or stereotypical, which I think is more due to the dating of the book and isn't the author's fault. The way that all of this convoluted nonsense gets built up just gets to the point of feeling overbearing and useless, but then it sort of wraps up nicely. Also too many stupid useless creepy sex scenes.
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