On and off, I've tended to read quite a bit. So, I thought I'd put up some reviews of books as I read them. In time, I may go back and add reviews of some of the books I read in the past. Not massively exciting, but I suppose it may be of interest to someone, somewhere (perhaps).
If on a Winter's night a traveller - Italo Calvino
I read this after reading some remarkably positive reviews on a book newsgroup. From what I read I expected something like half of Cloud Atlas written by Umberto Eco. It's something else, although there is a shadow of that.
It's no novel. The overall plot is rubbish, but that's not the point. It's like a quilt of stories that form an overall thesis on reading (and writing). It's clever and it's just showing off - I can sense the themes it's pushing, some obviously, some less so, but would find it hard to articulate. It makes me think of abstract landscapes, or maybe Mahler. It's a bit... academic.
All in all, it's a shaggy dog story, but it's made me think about how writing fiction can be so much more than just telling a story. I think you need to be in the mood for it, but if you are, it's brilliant.
Permalink. Posted 22:04, Tue, 31 Aug 2010.
There is also a complete index of the books.
Mail me at random.user@arbitrary.name.