Book Review – IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELLER by Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino If on a Winter's Night a Traveller ReviewIf on a Winter’s Night a Traveller Synopsis :

You go into a bookshop and buy If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. You like it. But alas there is a printer’s error in your copy. You take it back to the shop and get a replacement. But the replacement seems to be a totally different story. You try to track down the original book you were reading but end up with a different narrative again. This remarkable novel leads you through many different books including a detective adventure, a romance, a satire, an erotic story, a diary and a quest. But the real hero is you, the reader.

(Penguin, Vintage Classics)

Disclosure: If you click a link in this post we may earn a small commission to help offset our running costs.

BOOK REVIEW

Wow – If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino really is a book only for true book lovers, in multiple respects.

The story itself is an ode to books and the people that love them.

It is about the motivations of both reader and writer.

It is about the writing process and the intangible relationship between a writer and their reader; the unspoken contract between them.

It is about the power of a writer and the use of that power for good and evil.

It is about freedom of speech, conspiracy and deception.

It is about life imitating art, or is it art imitating life?

Confused yet? If not yet, you will be when you start reading If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller. But that’s both the beauty of this novel and why I’d only recommend it to those who love literature and unravelling the boundless skeins of meaning that can be found in it.

Your house, being the place in which you read, can tell us the position books occupy in your life, if they are a defense you set up to keep the outside world at a distance, if they area dream into which you sink as if into a drug, or bridges you cast toward the outside, toward the world that interests you so much that you want to multiply and extend its dimensions through books.

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller is anything but a light read. This is the first title I have read from Italo Calvino so I cannot say whether all his works require considerable intellectual investment but this one indeed requires ‘deep reading‘. For those who invest the time and effort the payoff is substantial – there are just so many clever ideas borne out in this novel to admire. Oh, and it is extremely funny in places too.

Italo Calvino If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Quote

But, it is perhaps that which makes this title so remarkable is also a point of weakness. Although thoroughly immersed right to the very last word, at times I did feel a sense of fatigue at all the cleverness packed into this one relatively short novel. You know how when you first arrive in a foreign country you take photos of almost every new thing you see but then after a while the novelty wears off, or you just get sick of taking out your camera?

I highly recommend If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino for lovers of literature – if only for the experience – but I caution only embarking on this journey when you have the time and energy to devote to it. This book will accept nothing less than your undivided attention.

BOOK RATING: The Story 4 / 5 ; The Writing 4.5 / 5

Italo Calvino If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Review
Get your copy of If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller from:
Book Depository | AmazonKobobooks | B&N | Bookworld(Aus)

Genre: Literature, Drama, Romance, Adventure, Mystery

Italo Calvino If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Review  Italo Calvino If on a Winter's Night a Traveler review  Italo Calvino If on a Winter's Night a Traveler review

About the Author, Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino (15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952–1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a winter’s night a traveller (1979). Lionised in Britain and the United States, he was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death, and a noted contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Other reviews of If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller

Goodreads, LondonReviewofBooks, CSMonitor, Shmoop, NewYorkTimes