bookshelves: one-penny-wonder, italy, paper-read, winter-20112012, published-1979, books-about-books-and-book-shops, amusing, little-green-men, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, shortstory-shortstories-novellas, incest-agameforallthefamily

** spoiler alert ** Translated from the Italian by William Weaver. Translator note: In chapter eight the passage from 'Crime and Punishment' is quoted in the beloved translation of Constance Garnett.

Dedication: for Danielle Ponchiroli

Opening: You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller'. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade.

p 26 - aleatory: adj. Dependent on chance, luck, or an uncertain outcome

p 58 - afflatus: A strong creative impulse, especially as a result of divine inspiration. [Latin affl tus , from past participle of affl re, to breathe on



Not being clever enough to make this review a parody, I'll use the tellingithowitwasforbettie stamp.

Don't know what I expected, however this initial encounter with Calvino and that egotistical start where he openly manipulates readers, wanted me to give him a right ol' penguin slap.

Then all of a sudden I was all about loving it AND laughing out loud and thinking what a clever ol' pretentious bastard he was. At 200 pages this should have been over within a few hours, nevertheless this is not a quick read; some passages have to be read two,three times for their beauty, or their fun, or their outrageous confusion.

The end turns to dust (pulviscular material) and a marriage: all I need to know now is did YOU read the same book that I did or was it, perchance, a fake!?

Can fully see why some detest this book/ can't get past the first 30+ pages, however I heartily endorse the whole with a dobbing big tick and place it on the to re-read shelf.

My mind's eye gives me this as an approximation of the Railway Buffet, if one can imagine yellowy fog on the outside

"

"

"It was all very well for me to pull up the mouth of the plastic bag: it barely reached Jojo's neck, and his head stuck out."

The first sensation this book should convey is what I feel when I hear the telephone ring..."

Speculate, reflect: every thinking activity implies mirrors for me."

"

"

"

Dedication:

For Bob and Dash

22 photographs of both house and internees.

Opening:

Part 1 The House on the Hill
June- November 1940

All genuine poetry is in a sense the formation
of private spheres out of a public chaos. - WH Auden



In the town there were two mutes, and they were
always together. Early every morning they would
come out from the house where they lived and
walk arm in arm down the street to work...
- Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Summer in New York is never pleasant, as tempers rise with the temperature and the noises, smells and colors of Manhattan intensify in the humid air. In June 1940, conditions were made worse by the alarming state of world events.

Astounding reading that should have garnered a 5* but for the repetition by the author - once noticed, it became glaring. However that did not detract too much from finding about that year, and those people in a one-off situation.

Auden & Britten: http://youtu.be/zmciuKsBOi0
Danny Kaye: Tchaikovsky: http://youtu.be/hh-wOvuOHPE



Listopia linked to this book: http://www.goodreads.com/list/user_vote/2010063