London; Vintage Books, 1998 ISBN 9780099430896
Phew, what a book! It's been a few months since I have read any fiction, and what a way to get back in harness, with a work of fiction all about what it is to read, and to be a reader: compulsively readable, and yet almost too much to take in.
The book starts by throwing the reader (who becomes part of the story, and, in fact IS the story) sideways, by describing the act of purchasing a copy of If on a Winter's Night a Traveller from the bookstore, before heading into the story.....but wait, you've purchased a mis-bound copy. So you take it back to the shop, where the replacement copy is a different story entirely.....you meet a woman who is also after a good copy of the Calvino book, and from there the story becomes more labyrinthine, with each twist taking the reader to a "new" book, masquerading as something else.
Calvino draws the reader in to the search for the missing pages, which then becomes a search for truth in fiction. As the book goes on the reader becomes more and more involved and frustrated at the merry-go-round of plots and beginnings, confusing what is "real" and what is the next "novel" that lands in their lap. Calvino throughout the book is looking at the notion of reading, of what we as readers want from a book, how the same book will resonate differently for different readers, and most importantly, what is "truth" in fiction.
This is a book that is stuffed-full of philosophy, and action. At times Kafka-esque, it is a very
European novel, and in fact a very Italian novel. It's definitely a post-modern novel too, which breaks down the barrier between reader and book, and plays with the idea of what a novel is, and can be.
Highly recommended.
Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell
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